BRIEFS 


ON 


PROPHETIC  THEMES 


BY  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  BOSTON  BAR. 


"  lietiini  for  thy  servants' sake,  the  tribes  of  thine  inheritance.  The  peo- 
ple of  thy  holiness  have  possessed  it  but  a  little  while  :  our  adversaries  have 
trodden  down  thy  sanctuary.  We  are  thine  :  thou  never  barest  rule  over 
them  ;  they  were  not  called  by  thy  name."— Isaiah  Ixiii.  17—19. 

"  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her.  that  her  warfare  is 
accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is  pardoned  :  for  she  hath  received  of  the  Lord's 
hand  double  for  all  her  sins."- Isaiah  xl.  2. 


BS649 
,J5L85 


BOSTON: 
P,    BUTTON    &    COMPANY 
IW  YORK :  HURD  &  HOUGHTON. 

1864. 


.vTS  L85 


/t'UA' 


/yiA^ 


ix<>*>^^=^ 


;./^s-^  K 


BRIEFS 


ON 


PROPHETIC    THEMES 


BY  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  BOSTON  BAR. 

/  -       ^^ 


"  Return  for  thy  servants'  sake,  the  tribes  of  thine  inheritance.  The  peo- 
ple of  thy  hohness  have  possessed  it  but  a  little  while  :  our  adversaries  have 
trodden  down  thy  sanctuary.  We  are  thine  :  thou  never  barest  rule  over 
them  ;  they  were  not  called  by  thy  name."— Isaiah  Ixiii.  17—19. 

"  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her,  that  her  warfare  is 
accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is  pardoned  :  for  she  hath  received  of  the  Lord's 
hand  double  for  all  her  sins."— Isaiah  xl.  2. 


BOSTON: 

E.    P.    BUTTON    i&    COMPANY. 

NEW  YORK :  HURD   &  HOUGHTON. 

1864. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864, 
By  E.  P.  Button  &  Co., 
in  the   Clerk's   Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 


BOSTON  : 

PRINTKD   BY  AUG.   A.   KINGMAN, 

116,  Washington  Street. 


I  inscribe  these  pages  to  my  children,  too  young  as  yet 
to  fully  apprehend  their  meaning,  in  the  hope  that,  in  after 
life,  their  appeal,  in  all  moral  issues,  some  of  which  are 
herein  indicated,  may  be,  ever  and  only,  to  the  Word  and 
providence  of  their  heavenly  Father,  and  to  the  guidance  of 
his  Holy   Spirit. 


PREFACE 


We  were  led  to  write  the  following  pages  by  a  perusal  of 
some  of  the  writings  of  Doctors  S.  P.  Tregelles  and  B.  W. 
Newton,  of  Plymouth,  England.  Some  of  their  views,  though 
harmonizing  with  views  we  had  previously  entertained,  were 
new  to  us.  These,  upon  consideration,  we  have  adopted,  and 
now  reproduce.  Other  views,  as  well  as  our  method  of  treat- 
ment, are  our  own,  for  which  these  most  learned  and  estima- 
ble Bible  scholars,  to  whom  we  have  been  so  deeply  indebted, 

can,  in  no  sense,  be  held  responsible. 

The  Author. 
Boston,  November,  1864. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Freface. 4 

The  Prophetic  Earth  of  Daniel  and  the  Revelation. 
Scripture  symbols  of  the  rise,  decline,  and  fall,  of  the 
four  great  Gentile  Powers 9 

The  Literal  Babylon  of  Prophecy.      Its  final  destruction 

co-incident  with  the  future  restoration  of  Israel.      .         .     22 

The  Symbolic  Babylon  of  Prophecy.  Its  composite 
character,  including,  not  Romanism  only,  but  all  forms 
of  false  religion  and  infidelity 38 

The  Antichrist  of  Prophecy.  The  restoration  of  the  Jews 
in  unbelief,  and  their  subsequent  persecution  by  Anti- 
christ  ,58 

Israel    and    Jerusalem    of    Prophecy.      God's   covenants 

concerning  them,  and  their  final  exaltation.  .         ,         80 


Appendix.    Extracts  froi:^    Colonel  Chesney's  Report,  etc.        105 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  PROPHETIC  EARTH  OF  DANIEL  AND  THE 
REVELATION. 

Dating  from  the  palmiest  hours  of  Babylouian  great- 
ness, under  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  co-incident  decline 
and  fall  of  the  Jewish  Theocracy,  it  will  not  be  denied 
that  the  four  great  empires  of  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece 
and  Rome  have  figured  more  conspicuously  than  any 
other  Gentile  powers  in  the  world's  history ;  nor  that 
they  have  a  distinctly  recognized  historic  existence  in  the 
prophetic  Scriptures  ;  nor,  whatever  allusions  may  therein 
be  made  to  other  powers,  that  such  allusions  are  merely 
incidental,  revealing  no  specific  outline,  nor  any  approach 
to  an  outline,  of  their  history,  as  of  the  history  of  the  four 
empires  thus  made  the  special  subjects  of  prophetic  men- 
tion. The  reasons  of  this  election  are  hidden  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Divine  Mind.  The  fact  that  such  dis- 
crimination exists,  that  such  an  election  is  actually  made, 
is  alone  pertinent  to  our  present  purpose. 

The  dreams  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  the  visions  of 
Daniel  embrace  the  whole  period  of  Gentile  civilization, 
from  the  conquest,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  of  the  two  tribes 
of  Judah  and  Benjamin  —  the  ten  revolted  tribes  of  Is- 
rael having,  long  before,  been  lost  in  their  still  mysterious 
2 


10  THE     PROPHETIC    EARTH. 

and  impenetrable  captivity  —  down  to  the  closwg  scenes 
of  the  present  dispensation.  These  dreams  and  visions, 
interpreted,  the  former  by  Daniel,  and  the  latter  by  direct 
angelic  agency,  together  Avith  the  visions  of  the  apostle  of 
Patmos,  as  recorded  in  the  Revelation  (which  latter  vis- 
ions unveil  those  closing  scenes,  with  respect  to  the  specific 
instrumentalities  by  Avhich  they  will  be  accomplished), 
have  a  marked  geographical  import,  and  relate,  exclu- 
sively, to  those  portions  of  the  earth  which  were  con- 
tained within  the  territorial  limits  of  these  four  empires, 
more  especially  the  Roman,  as  embracing  within  its 
boundaries  a  larger  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  than 
either  of  its  predecessors,  and  as  being  the  subject  of 
more  minute  and  extended  prophetic  detail. 

Wherefore  it  is  that,  in  a  distinctive  sense,  we  term  the 
territory  thus  incorporated,  the  prophetic  earth. 

This  distinctive  appellation  will  be  found  to  be  fully 
justified  upon  careful  reference  to  the  two  great  apocalyp- 
tic writers  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  book  of 
Daniel  being  not  less  the  Apocalypse  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, than  the  book  of  the  Revelation  the  Apocalypse  of 
the  New,  the  former  forecasting  the  whole  future  of  the 
four  empires,  the  latter,  in  its  relation  to  the  closing  scenes 
of  this  dispensation,  confining  itself  chiefly  to  the  Roman. 
Hence  we  style  the  prophetic  earth,  as  thus  indicated, 
the  prophetic  earth  of  Daniel  and  the  Revelation. 

The  second  chapter  of  Daniel,  under  the  symbol  of  an 
inanimate  image,  presents  an  outline  of  the  secular  his- 
tory of  these  empires,  in  respect  to  both  the  intrinsic  and 
comparative  value  of  governmental  power,  as  severally 
and  successively  exercised  by  them.  The  seventh  chapter, 
under  the  symbol  of   four  fierce  and  devouring  beasts. 


THE     PROPHETIC     EARTH.  11 

presents  an  outline  of  their  several  histories,  in  respect  to 
the  moral  quality  of  the  practical  use  and  exercise  of  that 
power.  Neither  chapter,  however,  gives  any  account  of 
their  territorial  or  chronological  boundaries.  These  are 
clearly  determinable  from  profane  history.  The  dignity 
of  the  inspired  record  stoops  not  thus  to  justify  itself,  or 
to  confirm  its  never-to-be-questioned  verity. 

The  wondrous  Image  of  Daniel  ii.  31 — 46,  glorious 
and  terrible,  looking,  as  with  lordly  supremacy,  down  the 
dim  vista  of  the  coming  ages,  to  the  very  end  of  the 
present  Gentile  dispensation,  comprehends,  with  careful 
precision,  the  prophetic  earth  as  we  have  defined  it,  but 
has  no  direct,  nor  any  thing  more  than  a  merely  influen- 
tial, application  to  other  regions  of  the  earth.  This  dis- 
tinction it  is  of  great  importance  to  note. 

The  prophet  Daniel,  in  revealing  and  interpreting  to 
Nebuchadnezzar  the  dream  of  the  Image,  assured  him 
that  his  kingdom,  or  the  empire  of  Babylon,  was  its 
head.  "  Thou  art  this  head  of  gold."  Its  head  was 
not  of  silver,  or  of  brass,  or  of  iron,  or  of  gold  even 
of  any  uncertain  quality.  "  The  Image's  head  was 
of  fine  gold."  Now,  therefore,  as  gold  is  the  most 
precious  of  metals,  and  as  fineness  is  the  term  used  to 
designate  its  highest  value,  it  follows  that  the  golden 
head  of  the  Image  must  be  a  symbol,  in  some  special 
and  distinctive  sense,  be  that  sense  what  it  may,  of 
governmental  power ^  in,  intrinsically,  its  most  precious 
form. 

But  what  is  the  special  sense  thus  indicated  ?  To  an- 
swer this  question,  we  need  but  to  inquire,  wdiat  single 
and  surpassing  attribute,  if  any,  of  governmental  power, 
most  distinguished  the  empire   of  Babylon,  and  contrib- 


12  THE     PROPHETIC     EARTH. 

uted  most  largely  to  make  it  preeminent  over  the  three 
empires  that  succeeded  it  ?  To  this  inquiry  but  one  an- 
swer can  be  given,  Avhich  is,  that  no  attribute  so  distin- 
guished either  its  own  exaltation,  or  its  preeminence 
over  its  successors,  as  its  absolute  autocracy  and  roy- 
alty of  poAver.  The  prophet  said  to  Nebuchadnezzar ; 
"  Thou,  O  king,  art  a  king  of  kings,  for  the  God  of 
heaven  hath  given  thee  a  kingdom,  power,  and  strength, 
and  glory  ;  and  wheresoever  the  children  of  men  dwell, 
the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  the  fowls  of  heaven,  hath 
he  given  into  thine  hand,  and  hath  made  thee  ruler  over 
them  all."  *  So  also  in  Jeremiah  xxvii.  5,  6  :  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel ;  Thus  shall  ye 
say  unto  your  masters  ;  I  have  made  the  earth,  the  man 
and  the  beast  that  are  upon  the  ground,  by  my  great 
power  and  by  my  outstretched  arm,  and  have  given  it 
unto  whom  it  seemed  meet  unto  me.  And  now  I  have 
given  all  these  lands  into  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
the  king  of  Babylon,  my  servant ;  and  the  beasts  of  the 
field  have  I  given  him  also  to  serve  him." 

Truly,  a  grant  of  power  scarcely  less  absolute  and  un- 

*  Dr.  Trcgelles,  in  commenting  upon  this  passage,  has  well  observed; 
"  These  words  do  not  imply  that  Nebuchadnezzar  actually  held  and  ex- 
ercised this  rule  over  every  part  of  the  inhabited  earth;  but  rather  that, 
so  far  as  God  was  concerned,  all  was  given  into  his  hand;  so  that 
he  was  not  limited  as  to  the  power  w'lich  he  might  obtain,  in  whatever 
direction  he  might  turn  himself  as  conqueror ;  the  only  earthly  bound  to 
his  empire  was  his  own  ambition."     Tregelles'  Daniel,  p.  7. 

So  also  Newton ;  "  This  gift  was  granted  to  Nebuchadnezzar  in  con- 
sequence of  his  being  part" of  the  Image,  and  was  not  dependent  upon 
his  power  being  "  golden  "  in  character.  The  endowment  of  all  the  suc- 
cessive empires  was  similar  to  his.  Hence  their  assumption  of  names 
or  expressions  implying  universality  of  dominion ;  and  their  title  to  do 
this  is  sanctioned  in  Scripture.  The  Romans  were  accustomed  to  call 
their  empire  "  Orbis  Terrarum,"  and  in  Scripture  the  corresponding  ex- 
Tpression  71  uaa  )^  uL>c uiufrii  is  usied.  "  There  went  out  a  decree  from 
Caesar  Augustus  that  the  zchole  world  {naou  /,  oly.orni%r^)  should  be 
taxed."  Thus  also  Cyrus  says,  "  the  God  of  Heaven  hath  given  me  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth."    Ezra  i.  2. 


THE     rROPIIETIC     EARTH.  13 

limited  in  its  terms  than  that  conferred  upon  Adam  before 
his  tall.  With  how  sublime  a  title,  with  what  glorious 
privileges,  Gentile  civilization  set  forth  upon  its  career  ! 
How  deserved  its  predicted  doom,  if  recreant  to  so  god- 
like a  trust ! 

The  head  of  gold  could  not  have  been  a  symbol  of  this 
empire,  in  respect  to  the  extent  of  its  territorial  domin- 
ion, for,  in  this  respect,  it  was  inferior  to  each  of  the 
empires  symbolised  by  silver,  and  brass,  and  iron,  that 
succeeded  it.  To  what,  therefore,  can  the  "  fine  gold  " 
refer,  but  to  governmental  power  in  the  supremest  form 
in  which  it  was  ever  conferred  upon  a  Gentile  king? 

Assuming,  then  —  with  all  history,  sacred  and  profane, 
for  our  warrant  —  that  the  kingdom  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
as  thus  symbolised,  was  sovereign  power  in  its  most 
unrestrained,  its  most  autocratic,  its  most  nearly  theo- 
cratic, sense,  the  symbol  further  teaches  that  this  form 
of  power  is,  in  itself,  not  only  precious,  but  the  most 
precious,  and  that  it  is,  or  can  be,  evil,  and  was  evil 
in  the  case  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  its  misuse  or  mal- 
administration only.  If  it  were  evil  in  itself,  it  would 
not  have  been  conferred  upon  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  we 
have  seen  that  it  was,  by  the  direct  gift  of  the  Almighty, 
nor  could  it  be  conferred  by  the  Almighty,  as  we  know 
that  it  will  be,  upon  Him,  of  whom,  in  prophetic  vision,  it 
is  said,  "  The  sovereignty  of  the  Avorld  has  become  the 
sovereignty  of  our  God  and  of  his  Christ,  and  He  shall 
reign  for  ever  and  ever." 

"  After  thee  shall  arise  another  kingdom  inferior  to 
thee"  —  "  the  breast  and  arms  of  silver."  This  kingdom 
is  admitted,  by  the  common  consent  of  all  expositors,  to 
be  the  immediate  successor  of  the  Babylonian,  to  wit,  the 


14  THE     PROPHETIC     EARTH. 

Medo-Persian.  The  arms  have  been  supposed  to  repre- 
sent, the  one  Media,  and  the  other  Persia.  This  seems 
probable  enough,  but  is  not  material  to  our  purpose. 
This  empire  was  not,  like  its  predecessor,  an  absolute 
monarchy,  but  a  limited  sovereignty.  It  was,  as  appears 
both  from  Scripture  and  profane  history,  an  aristocratic 
monarchy^  the  nobles,  or  men  of  birth,  being,  not  the  sup- 
porters only,  but,  in  an  important  sense,  controllers  of  the 
crown,  and  in  all  respects,  save  official  rank,  its  equals. 
The  extent  of  their  influence  is  shown  in  the  decree  which 
consi":ned  Daniel  to  the  den  of  lions.  Not  so  did  Nebu- 
chadnezzar  rule.  In  his  golden  power,  he  would  have 
consigned  such  counsellors  to  the  den  themselves,  rather 
than  forego  the  exercise  of  his  royal  Avill,  for  "  whom 
he  Avould  he  slew,  and  whom  he  would  he  kept  alive." 
So,  also,  the  Persian  monarch,  Ahasuerus  (in  the  book  of 
Esther),  and  his  princes  acted  together^  and  the  king  could 
not  undo  what  they  had  jointly  decreed  concerning  Queen 
Yashti.  And  in  Ezra  vii.  14,  we  find  authority  given  to 
that  servant  of  God /ro?>i  the  king  and  his  seven  counsellors. 
All  this  shows,  not  a  king  acting  in  right  of  his  royal 
prerogative,  but  controlled  by  counsellors,  without  ivhose 
advice  and  consent  he  could  not  act.  Power  was  beginning 
to  lose  its  golden  excellence,  precisely  as  the  metals  sym- 
bolising it  were  beginning  to  lessen,  not  in  value  only,  but, 
it  will  be  noticed,  in  specific  gravity  also,  thus  exhibiting 
the  reverse  of  stability  as  we  descend  the  Image.  Cir- 
cumstances arose,  with  which  the  depreciated  power  of  the 
monarchs  of  Persia  soon  found  itself  unable  to  contend. 

That  silver  Avas  the  symbol  of  both  the  intrinsic  and 
relative  value  of  the  Persian  form  of  governmental  power, 
and  not  of  the  territorial  extent  of  its  dominion,  is  evi- 


THE     rROrilETiC     EARTH.  15 

dent,  because,  in  military  prowess  and  extent  of  territorial 
acquisition,  it  was  not  inferior  to  the  Babylonian.  On 
the  contrary,  it  subjugated,  under  Cyrus,  regions  (Asia 
Minor,  for  example),  which  the  monarchs  of  Chaldea 
never  reached,  so  that,  in  this  respect,  it  was  not  only 
not  inferior,  but  far  superior  to  its  predecessor.  And  this 
is  the  aspect  under  which  the  vision  of  the  Image  con- 
tinually presents  itself.  It  is  a  symbolic  outline  of  the 
history  of  the  four  great  Gentile  empires,  in  respect  to 
the  character  of  their  power. 

Next  succeeded  the  Greek  or  Greco-Macedonian  em- 
pire of  Alexander — "the  belly  and  thighs  of  hrass.^* 
The  identity  of  this  symbol  with  this  empire  is  admitted 
without  a  question.  Alexander,  "  the  great  scourge  and 
destroyer  of  Asia,"  but  of  superlative  ambition  (which 
the  elder  Napoleon  affected  in  vain),  Avith  his  brazen- 
coated  legions,  before  the  close  of  his  brief  reign,  at 
the  early  age  of  thirty-two  years,  had  far  exceeded  both 
the  Persian  and  the  Chaldean  monarchs,  alike  in  the  celer- 
ity of  his  conquests,  and  the  territorial  extent  of  his  do- 
minions. Elsewhere  in  Daniel  he  is  represented  under  the 
symbol  of  a  "  winged  leopard."  His  conquests  extended 
across  Asia  Minor,  Syria  and  Egypt,  to  Affghanistan  and 
the  Indus  ;  and  he  paused  not,  if  we  may  credit  tradi- 
tion, until  compelled  to  pause,  weeping  that  he  had  no 
more  worlds  to  conquer.  And  yet  the  character  of  his 
power  is  only  worthy  of  being  symbolised  by  brass,  not  a 
precious  metal,  but  a  mere  alloy.  And  when,  upon  his 
death,  his  empire  Avas  divided  between  his  four  victorious 
generals,  whose  proud,  fierce  spirits  had  been  nursed 
amidst  the  democracies  of  southern  Greece,  it  is  a  fact, 
most  significant  of  the  gradual   depreciation  of  Gentile 


16  THE     PROPHETIC     EARTH. 

power,  that,  at  Rome,  an  ounce  of  silver  was  equivalent, 
according  to  Gibbon,  to  about  seventy  pounds'  weight  of 
brass. 

The  Greco-Macedonian  empire  was  a  military  oli- 
garchy^ a  still  inferior  grade  of  power. 

Thus  descending  the  Image,  we  reach,  at  last,  the  em- 
pire of  the  Cffisars  —  "the  legs  of  iron,  the  feet  part  of 
iron  and  part  of  clay.''  This  empire,  in  its  subdivisions, 
still,  in  the  prophetic  sense,  exists,  and  Avill  continue  to 
exist,  until  the  number  of  its  subdivisions,  East  and  West 
together,  shall  have  reached  its  full  complement,  which  it 
has  never  reached  as  yet ;  and  until  the  present  Gentile 
dispensation  shall  terminate,  upon  the  overthrow,  by  the 
"  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,"  of 
their  representative  and  united  strength,  before  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem.  This  empire,  in  its  earlier  develop- 
ment under  the  Caesars,  is  represented  by  the  symbol 
of  unmixed  iron.  Its  completed  development,  that  of  the 
ten  sovereignties,  European,  Asiatic  and  African,  into 
which  it  will  eventually  be  subdivided,  is  represented  un- 
der the  symbol  of  iron  mixed  with  "  miry  clay,"  referring, 
unquestionably,  to  the  mixed  monarchical  and  popular, 
or  populo-monarchic,  character  of  these  ten  sovereignties, 
upon  this  eventual  subdivision  of  the  Roman  empire, 
formed  to  so  large  an  extent  already. 

The  term  "  miry,"  as  applied  to  clay,  is  not  less  sig- 
nificant of  the  relative  value  of  the  ten  toes  of  the  feet 
of  the  Image,  considered  as  a  symbol  of  governmental 
power,  than  is  the  term  "fineness"  of  the  relative  value 
of  the  head.  A  mournful  picture,  indeed,  of  the  gradual 
declension,  both  of  the  value  and  the  stability  of  Gentile 
power,  a  sad  reversal  of  the  flushed  and  giddy  hopes  of 


THE    PROPHETIC    EARTH.  17 

our  vaunted  Gentile  progress,  and  Gentile  civilization ! 
But  is  it,  for  that  reason,  any  less  the  revealed  word  of 
God?  "SYe  humbly  submit  that  it  is  God's  Word.  How 
can  we  any  more  doubt  it,  than  we  can  doubt  the  verity  of 
Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  or  of  Daniel's  revelation  and 
interpretation  of  it? 

History,  sacred  and  profane,  thus  bears  witness  that  the 
dream,  as  interpreted  by  Daniel,  has  come  to  pass  most 
strictly  and  literally  hitherto,  not  less  so,  indeed,  than 
the  vision  of  the  "great  tree"  in  Daniel  iv.  which  was 
fulfilled  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  lifetime.  Why  then  doubt 
that  it  will,  any  the  less  strictly  and  literally,  continue  to 
come  to  pass  to  the  very  end?  As  to  the  divine  inspira- 
tion and  authenticity  of  the  prophet  Daniel,  our  Saviour 
himself  attests  it,  with  an  endorsement  of  the  most  incon- 
testable character. 

Under  the  dominion  of  the  Caesars,  we  reach  the  most 
extended  limits  of  the  prophetic  earth — of  that  portion 
of  the  earth's  territory  symbolised  by  the  Image — so  that 
as  we  proceed,  Ave  shall  use  the  terms  prophetic  and  Ro- 
man earth  in  an  interchangeable  sense.  The  Roman 
empire,  or  "  orhis  terrarum'^  of  the  Romans,  not  only,  for 
the  most  part,  included,  but,  Avith  only  here  and  there  an 
exception,  far  exceeded  the  utmost  boundaries  of  the 
three  preceding  empires.  We  can  call  the  countries  in- 
cluded in  it  all  by  name,  Avhether  in  the  language  of 
ancient  or  modern  geography.  We  propose  to  shoAv,  in 
another  chapter,  that  the  Roman  earth,  divided  yet  united, 
consisting  of  ten  independent  yet  confederated  kingdoms, 
will  be  the  special  and  restricted  sphere  of  the  dominion 
of  the  last  great  monarch  of  the  Gentiles,  The  Anti- 
christ OF  Prophecy. 
3 


18  THE    PROPHETIC    EARTH. 

The  seventh  chapter  of  Daniel  represents  these  four 
great  world  powers  in  respect  to  the  moral  quality  of 
the  practical  use  or  exercise  of  their  governmental  power, 
under  the  symbol,  as  we  have  already  stated,  of  four  fierce 
and  devouring  beasts  ;  the  Babylonian  being  represented 
by  the  majestic  fulness  and  preeminence  of  power  of  the 
lion  ;  the  Persian  by  the  sullen  fierceness  and  voracity 
("devouring  much  flesh")  of  the  bear;  the  Greek  by 
the  swiftness,  and  grace,  and  beauty,  but  subtilty  and 
malignity  of  the  leopard  ;  the  Roman  by  the  stern,  and 
haughty,  and  crushing  strength  of  a  nameless,  complica- 
ted, ten-horned  monster,  of  indescribable  horror,  "  strong 
exceedingly,"  who,  in  the  "last  days,"  under  the  symbol  of 
a  "  little  horn,"  "  exalting  himself  above  all  that  is  called 
God  or  that  is  worshipped,"  and  representing  the  consum- 
mated glory  of  Gentile  civilization,  "  shall  stand  up  against 
the  Prince  of  princes,"  the  Messiah  of  Israel,  to  receive 
from  Him  his  everlasting  condemnation. 

We  question  not ;  on  the  contrary,  we  appreciate,  and 
confess  ourselves  by  no  means  insensible  to,  the  fascina- 
tions, the  bewildering  allurements,  the  aesthetic  refine- 
ments, the  magnificent  attainments  of  science  and  of  art, 
the  lofty  material  splendor,  of  that  consummated  Gentile 
glory,  which  will  seem  as  fair  and  desirable  to  the  eye 
and  heart  of  unregenerate  man,  as  the  grapes  of  Sod- 
om or  clusters  of  Gomorrah,  but  which  will  not,  for 
that  reason,  in  its  general  spirit,  be  any  the  less  hostile  to 
God,  or  bear  any  the  less  the  dark  impress  of  Sodom,  or 
hasten  with  less  accelerated  speed  to  the  same  fearful 
doom.     If  it  leans   on  Sodom,  with   Sodom  it  must  fall. 

Witness,  finally,  the  crisis  of  the  Image,  the  tragical 
conclusion  of  Gentile  ascendancy : 


THE   PROPHETIC   EARTH.  19 

"A  stone  was  cut  out  without  hands,  which  smote  the 
image  upon  its  feet  that  were  of  iron  and  clay,  and  brake 
them  to  pieces.  Then  was  the  iron,  the  clay,  the  brass, 
the  silver  and  the  gold,  broken  to  pieces  together,  and  be- 
came like  the  chalF  of  the  summer  threshing  floor ;  and 
the  wind  carried  them  away,  that  no  place  was  found  for 
them,  and  the  stone  that  smote  the  image  became  a  great 
mountain,  and  filled  the  whole  earth And  i 


m 


the  days  of  these  kings  [the  ten  kings,  or  sovereignties, 
symbolised  by  the  ten  toes  of  the  feet  of  the  image  (the 
two  feet  referring,  not  improbably,  to  the  Eastern  and 
Western  divisions  of  the  Roman  empire),  symbolised 
also,  by  the  ten  horns  of  the  fourth  beast,  or  Roman  em- 
pire— '  and  the  ten  horns  of  this  kingdom  are  the  ten 
kings  that  shall  arise,'  Dan.  vii.  24]  shall  the  God  of 
heaven  set  up  a  kingdom,  which  shall  never  be  destroyed  : 
and  the  kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but  it 
shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume  all  these  kingdoms, 
and  it  shall  stand  forever.  Forasmuch  as  thou  sawest 
that  the  stone  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands, 
and  that  it  break  in  pieces  the  iron,  the  brass,  the  clay, 
the  silver  and  the  gold  ;  the  great  God  hath  made  known 
to  the  king  what  shall  come  to  pass  hereafter  ;  and  the 
dream  is  certain  and  the  interpretation  thereof  sure." — 
Daniel  ii.  34,  35,  43—45. 

Surely,  if  language  is  capable  of  interpreting  its  own 
meaning,  it  is  an  act,  not  of  peaceful  and  benignant  bless- 
ing, hut  of  xindictive  and  destroying  judgment,  that  is  here 
described,  not  the  gradual  spread  and  diflusion  of  the  gos- 
pel of  peace,  but  the  quick,  and  sudden,  and  wrathful, 
and  utter  destruction  of  the  more  than  ever  proud  and 
stately,  but  the  final  and  more  than  ever  godless.  Babel 
of  Gentile   power.     "  And  whosoever  shall  fall  upon  tliis 


20  THE    PROPHETIC    EARTH. 

stone  shall  be  broken  ;  but  on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it 
will  grind  him  to  powder." 

The  "ancient  people"  of  God,  alone  of  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  prophetic  earth,  will  escape  the  destruction. 
"  In  those  days  shall  Juclah  he  saved,  and  Jerusalem 
shall  dwell  safely." 

"  And  the  kingdom  and  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of 
the  kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to 
the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  most  High,  whose  king- 
dom is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  all  dominions  shall 
serve  and  obey  him." — Daniel  vii.  27. 

This  verse,  as  we  understand  it,  describes  the  glorious 
sequel  of  these  judicial  scenes  ;  the  expression,  "  saints 
of  the  most  High,"  referring  to  the  saints,  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, of  the  present  dispensation  in  their  thenceforward 
risen  glory,  as  inhabitants  of  the  new  or  heavenly  Je- 
rusalem, ministering,  as  a  "royal  priesthood"  to  the 
blessed  inhabitants  of  earth  during  its  millennial  career ; 
and  the  expression,  "people  of  the  saints  of  the  most 
High,"  referring  to  the  restored  and  now  forgiven  Jew- 
ish nation,  as  the  leading  nation  of  the  earth  during  the 
millennium,  dispensing,  from  the  overflowing  fulness  of 
its  blessings,  to  all  other  nations  ;  thus  fulfilling  the  cove- 
nant of  God  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac  and  Jacob — "  and 
in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  * 

*  Dr.  Tregelles,  in  remarking  upon  this  passage,  has  said ;  "  This  ap- 
pears to  me  to  be  a  statement,  informing  us  that  a  certain  kingdom,  not 
co-extensive  with  that  of  the  Son  of  Man,  will  be  given  to  a  certain  na- 
tion. Who  then  can  this  nation  be  ?  Now,  it  is  clear  from  many  Scrip- 
tures that  Israel  will,  after  they  are  set  in  grace,  and  their  blindnesss 
and  consequent  rejection  are  ended,  be  the  head  of  the  nations,  and  bear 
rule  over  the  earth.  In  chapter  viii.  24,  we  find  the  expression  '  the 
mighty  and  the  holy  people,'  or,  more  literally,  '  people  of  the  holy 
ones,'  or  '  people  of  the  saints,'— this  Hebrew  phrase  answering  pretty 
accurately  to  the  Chaldee  used  in  the  passage  before  us.  Now  as  in 
chapter  viii,  the  Jews  are  the  nation  clearly  denoted,  so  do  I  consider 
that  they  are  intended  here."     Tregelles'  Daniel,  p.  45. 


THE    PROPHETIC    EARTH.  21 

Have  not  millennial  writers  been  too  much  accus- 
tomed to  dissociate  the  restored  Jewish  Theocracy  from 
their  conceptions  of  the  millennial  kingdom? 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE  LITERAL  BABYLON  OF  PROPHECY. 

ITS     FINAL     DESTRUCTION      CO-INCIDENT    WITH     THE    FUTURE 
RESTORATION    OF   ISRAEL. 

Perhaps  no  truth  is  more  clearly  revealed  in  prophetic 
Scripture  than  the  co-incidence  of  the  restoration  of  both 
families  of  the  House  of  Israel,  as  one  nation,  to  their 
own  land,  and  the  final  destruction  and  desolation  of  the 
city  and  land  of  Babylon,  as  predicted  by  Isaiah  and  Jer- 
emiah. When  the  feet  of  the  "  outcasts  of  Israel "  and 
of  the  "  dispersed  of  Judah"  shall  stand  again  within  the 
borders  of  the  "  pleasant  land,"  and  within  the  "  gates  of 
Jerusalem,"  then,  but  not  till  then,  will  re-united  Israel 
"  take  up  this  parable,"  and  join  in  this  acclaim,  "  How 
hath  the  oppressor  ceased  —  the  golden  city  ceased!" 
When  the  whole  House  of  Israel,  restored  and  undivided, 
shall  perform,  like  any  other  nation,  all  the  functions  of  a 
distinct,  organized  and  recognized  nationality  in  their  own 
land,  then,  but  not  till  then,  will  the  burden  of  Babylon, 
which  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  saw,  be  fulfilled  in  her 
final  overthrow.  When  peace  revisits  the  walls  and  pros- 
perity the  palaces  of  Jerusalem,  when  the  curse  of  the 
Mosaic  covenant  is  revoked,  and  the  blessings  of  the 
Abrahamic  covenant  are  ushered  in,  then,  but  not  till 
then,  will  Babylon  lie  there  upon  the  not  distant  plains  of 


LITERAL    BABYLON.  23 

Shinar,  a  sudden  and  utter  wreck,  the  saddest  wreck  of 
all,  of  Gentile  evil  greatness  and  Gentile  evil  glory. 

"  Out  of  the  North  there  coineth  up  a  nation  against 
her  [Babylon]  which  shall  make  her  land  desolate,  and 
none  shall  dwell  therein  ;  they  shall  remove,  they  shall 
depart,  both  man  and  beast.  In  those  days,  and  in 
THAT  TIME,  saith  the  Lord,  the  children  of  Israel  shall 
come,  they  and  the  children  of  Judah  together,  going  and 
weeping ;  they  shall  go  and  seek  the  Lord  their  God. 
They  shall  ask  the  way  to  Zion  with  their  faces  thither- 
ward, saying,  Come  let  us  join  ourselves  to  the  Lord  in  a 
perpetual  covenant  that  shall  not  be  forgotten.'* 

"  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God  of 
Israel :  Behold,  I  will  punish  the  king  of  Babylon  and  his 
land,  as  I  have  punished  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  I  will 
bring  Israel  again  to  his  habitation  ;  and  he  shall  feed  on 
Carmel  and  Bashan,  and  his  soul  shall  be  satisfied  on 
Mount  Ephraim  and  Gilead.  In  those  day's,  and  in 
THAT  TIME,  saitli  the  Lord,  the  iniquity  of  Israel  shall  be 
sought  for,  and  there  shall  be  none  ;  and  the  sins  of  Ju- 
dah, and  they  shall  not  be  found,  for  I  will  pardon  them 
whom  I  reserve." — Jeremiah  1 :   1,  3,  4,  5,  18. 

The  co-incidence  of  the  two  events,  thus  so  circum- 
stantially set  forth,  is  here  affirmed  by  the  God  of  Israel 
Himself,  in  terms  as  explicit  and  direct  as  language  is 
capable  of  alFording.  If  the  occurrence  of  two  syn- 
chronous events  be  not  described  in  the  above  Scripture, 
by  what  language  could  it  be  described  ?  If  it  will  not 
bear  the  construction  we  have  placed  upon  it,  what  con- 
struction would  it  bear?  The  Avords,  "  in  THOSe  days, 
AND  IN  THAT  TIME,"  occurring  in  both  passages  and  Inking 
both  events  together,  as  co-incident  in  point  of  time,  are 


24  LITERAL    BABYLON. 

perfectly  definite.     They  are  neither  figurative  nor  enig- 
matic. 

Now,  if  these  events  have  not  taken  place  in  the  past, 
they  must,  as  truly  as  God  liveth,  take  place  in  the  future. 
This  is  no  less  true  than  that,  take  place  when  they  will, 
they  will  take  place  together,  or  so  nearly  together  as 
justly  to  be  pronounced  co-incident  in  the  prophetic 
Scriptures. 

If,  therefore,  the  two  families  of  the  House  of  Israel 
have  not,  as  yet,  been  jointly  restored  to  their  own  land, 
and  forgiven  and  blest  as  an  undivided  nation  therein, 
according  to  the  conditions  and  circumstances  predicted 
by  Jeremiah,  and  their  re-union  sealed  by  a  "  perpetual 
covenant"  with  the  Lord,  then  cannot  the  city  of  Babylon 
have  been  destroyed  and  the  city  and  land  of  Babylon 
have  been  desolated,  according  to  the  predictions  cited. 
It  is  this  latter  point,  that  more  especially  engages  our 
attention  in  the  present  chapter. 

Their  predicted  restoration  is  clearly  and  unques- 
tionably/i^ii^re.  For  when,  since  the  revolt  of  the  ten 
tribes  under  Jeroboam,  have  the  "  children  of  Israel, 
they  and  the  children  of  Judah  together,"  sought  the 
Lord  and  entered  into  a  "  perpetual  covenant"  with  him? 
Speculation  was  never  more  at  a  loss  than  at  this  very 
day,  as  to  who  or  where  the  ten  tribes  are.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  it  ever  less  at  a  loss.  No  fact,  in  the 
history  of  God's  providence,  has  ever  been  wrapped  in  ob- 
scurity more  profound,  more  mysterious,  more  impenetra- 
ble, than  the  identity,  and  abode  or  abodes,  of  the  ten  out- 
cast tribes  of  Israel,  from  the  beginning  of  their  captivity 
even  until  now.  Human  curiosity  and  speculation  have 
never  been  more  completely  baffled  by  the  inscrutable  pur- 


LITEEAL    BABYLON.  25 

poses  of  the  Divine  will.  The  concealment  has  been,  and 
still  is,  as  profound  and  effectual  on  the  one  hand,  as  the 
manifestation  predicted  by  Jeremiah  will  be  patent  and 
glorious  on  the  other.  There  will  be  no  mistaking  the 
event  when  it  occurs,  as  there  could  be  none,  if  it  had 
occurred  already. 

Earnest  advocates  are  not  wanting  of  theories  that 
traces  of  the  lost  tribes  are  to  be  discovered  in  Armenia, 
Nestoria,  Persia,  and  other  regions  of  Asia.  On  the 
other  hand.  Lord  Kingsborough  devoted  forty  years  of  a 
most  valuable  life,  and  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  a 
most  princely  fortune,  to  researches  into  Mexican  antiqui- 
ties, which  tend  to  show  that  the  ancient  Aztecs  and  other 
Indian  tribes  are  their  descendants.  The  Roman  Catholic 
and  other  European  museums  opened  to  him  all  the  treas- 
ures of  their  archives.  The  co-incidences  adduced  by 
him,  of  many  of  their  religious  and  social  rites  and  cus- 
toms with  those  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  are  most  strik- 
ing and  impressive.  His  theory,  though  confused,  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  plausible  of  all,  but,  after  all,  and  like 
all,  it  is  a  theory  only.  God,  who  unfolds  his  own  coun- 
sels at  his  own  sovereign  pleasure  only,  has  never  un- 
locked that  secret  to  mortal  ken. 

Wherefore  if  the  "  outcasts  of  Israel"  have  never  yet, 
hand  in  hand  with  the  "  dispersed  of  Judah,"  set  their 
faces  Zionward,  and  been  reestablished,  forgiven  and 
blest  as  one  nation  in  their  own  land,  then  also  cannot 
the  co-incident  and  final  destruction  of  Babylon,  as  de- 
scribed by  Jeremiah,  have  yet  occurred. 

The  converse  inference  —  namely,  that  the  "  dispersed 
of  Judah"  never  having  been  restored,  so  also  the  "  out- 
casts of  Israel "    can   not  have   been  —  is    equally  legiti- 


26  LITERAL   BABYLON. 

mate,  and  equally  conclusive  of  the  futurity  of  the  final 
destruction  of  Babylon. 

Again ;  Christ  assured  the  Jews  that  they  should  be 
"  trodden  under  foot  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  times  of 
the  Gentiles  should  be  fulfilled."  Now  if  the  predictions 
of  Jeremiah,  which  we  have  quoted,  concerning  the  resto- 
ration of  the  Jews,  have  been  fulfilled  in  the  past,  then  also 
must  the  "  times  of  the  Gentiles"  have  been  fulfilled  in 
the  past.  But  most  clearly,  the  "  times  of  the  Gentiles" 
are  still  unfulfilled.  The  Jews  must  therefore  still  be 
trodden  under  foot,  for  they  can  not,  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  be  scattered  and  trodden  under  foot,  and  restored, 
re-established,  forgiven  and  blest,  as  a  nation.  Such  a 
supposition  would  be  as  illogical  and  absurd,  as  it  would 
be  contrary  to  the  plainest  facts  of  history,  and  every 
day's  observation. 

When  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are  fulfilled  ;  when  that 
promise  of  God  to  Israel  is  redeemed,  "Behold,  I  will 
take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the  Gentiles, 
whither  they  be  gone,  and  will  gather  them  on  every  side, 
and  bring  them  into  their  own  land  ;"  and  when  that  other 
promise  of  God  to  Israel  is  also  redeemed,  "It  shall 
come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  Lord  shall  set  his  hand 
again  the  second  time,  to  recover  the  remnant  of  his  peo- 
ple which  shall  be  left  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and 
from  Pathros,  and  from  Gush,  and  from  Elam,  and  from 
Shinar,  and  from  Hamath,  and  from  the  isles  of  the  sea, 
and  he  shall  set  up  an  ensign  for  the  nations,  and  shall 
assemble  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  and  gather  together  the 
dispersed  of  Judah  [how  wholly  unfulfilled  in  the  past !] 
from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  ;"  then  it  is  that  the 
curse,  which  has  hung  so  long  and  so  heavily  over  the 


LITERAL    BABYLON.  27 

devoted  heads  of  this  suffering  but  chosen  people,  will 
be  lifted  ;  then  it  is  that  they  will  be  "  settled  after  their 
old  estates,"  renationalized,  forgiven  and  blest;  then  it 
is,  but  not  till  then,  that  the  city  and  land  of  Babylon  will 
be  finally  desolated,  and  the  king  of  Babylon  destroyed  ; 
then  it  is,  but  not  till  then,  that  the  whole  House  of 
Israel  will,  as  predicted,  "  rule  over  her  oppressors,"  and 
take  up  her  triumphal  song,  "  How  hath  the  oppressor 
ceased — the  golden  city  ceased  !"  The  return  of  re-united 
Israel  and  her  triumphal  reign  over  her  oppressors  will 
be  as  literal,  as  conspicuous  to  the  observation  of  the 
whole  earth,  as  have  been  her  dispersion  and  her  persecu- 
tions. We  do  not  see,  with  such  plain  declarations  of 
God  before  us,  what  principle  of  reasoning,  or  what 
method  of  interpretation  can,  with  scriptural  safety,  reach 
an  opposite  conclusion.  Deny  the  literal  future  of  Israel, 
as  predicted  by  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  and  we  are  com- 
pelled, in  all  logical  fairness,  to  deny,  not  less,  her  literal 
present  and  literal  past,  which  would  be  absurd. 
Observe  further  the  following  prediction  of  Isaiah  : 
"  The  Lord  will  have  mercy  upon  Jacob,  and  will  yet 
choose  Israel,  and  set  them  in  their  own  land,  and  the 
strangers  shall  be  joined  with  them,  and  they  shall  cleave 
to  the  house  of  Jacob.  And  the  peoples  [the  Gentile  na- 
tions] shall  take  them  and  bring  them  to  their  place  ;  and 
the  house  of  Israel  shall  possess  them  in  the  land  of  the 
Lord,  for  servants  and  handmaids  ;  and  they  shall  rule 
over  their  oppressors.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  in  the 
DAY  [not  before]  that  the  Lord  shall  give  thee  rest  from 
thy  sorrow,  and  thy  fear,  and  from  the  hard  bondage 
wherein  thou  wast  made  to  serve,  that  thou  shalt  take  up 
this  parable  against  the  king  of  Babylon,  and  say,  How 


28  *     LITERAL      BABYLON. 

hath  the  oppressor  ceased — the  golden  city  ceased  !  " — 
Isaiah  xiv.  1 — 4. 

When  have  Israel  been  carried  back  to  their  place  by 
the  Gentile  nations?  When  have  they  taken  them  cap- 
tives whose  captives  they  were  ?  When  have  they  had 
rest  from  their  sorrow,  and  their  fear,  and  the  hard  bon- 
dage wherein  they  have  been  made  to  serve,  and  are 
serving  still  ?  When  have  they  ruled  over  their  oppres- 
sors ?  But  a  remnant  only  of  the  two  tribes  of  Judah 
and  Benjamin  were  restored  by  Cyrus  at  the  close  of  the 
Babylonian  captivity,  and  instead  of  ruling  over  him, 
they  were  ruled  over  by  him,  while  the  whole  house  of 
Jacob,  and  a  portion  of  the  house  of  Judah  (comprehend- 
ing always  the  tribe  of  Benjamin)  remained  dispersed 
among  the  Gentiles.  And  yet  we  are  expressly  assured 
that  all  these  events  are  either  to  precede  or  accompany 
the  final  destruction  of  Babylon. 

A  recent  writer  has  urged  that  the  predictions  of  resto- 
ration and  blessing  to  Israel  and  the  co-incident  and  final 
destruction  of  Babylon  have  been  fulfilled,  because  they 
were  uttered  by  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  antecedently  to  the 
restoration  from  Babylon  under  Cyrus.  But  was  the 
nation,  both  branches  of  it,  fully  re-collected  and  finally 
forgiven  then?  Have  they  suffered  nothing  for  unfor- 
given  sins  since?  Have  not  the  "outcasts  of  Israel" 
remained  outcast,  and  the  "dispersed  of  Judah"  dis- 
persed since?  Have  they  not  been  a  "peeled  nation," 
terribly  chastised  of  heaven,  ever  since?  Has  not  that 
added,  that  most  terrible  curse  of  all,  self-invoked  while 
their  hands  were  red  with  the  blood  of  the  murdered 
Messiah,  "  His  blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  children,"  been 
fulfilled  with  a  terribleness  with  which  no  curse  was  ever 


LITERAL      BABYLON.  29 

fulfilled  before?  Is  it  not  fulfilling  still?  When,  since 
the  return  from  Babylon  of  a  portion  only  of  two  of  the 
twelve  tribes,  could  the  iniquity  of  Israel  be  sought  for, 
and  there  was  none ;  and  the  sins  of  Judah,  and  they 
not  be  found?  When  has  there  been  heard  such  violence 
in  her  land,  such  wasting  and  destruction  within  her 
borders,  as  since  their  return  from  the  waters  of 
Babylon  ?  Then  have  not  the  predictions  of  these 
prophets  concerning  Israel  and  Babylon  been  accom- 
plished. Then  hath  not  "  Babylon,  the  glory  of  king- 
doms, the  beauty  of  the  Chaldees'  excellency,  become  as 
when  God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah."  * 

So  also  the  prophet  Joel,  describing  the  mustering  of 
the  armies  of  the  prophetic  earth  at  Armageddon  for  the 
final  siege  of  Jerusalem,  which  will  be  co-incident  in  time 
with  the  final  destruction  of  Babylon  by  the  hordes  of 
central  and  northern  Asia,  as  will  elsewhere  be  shown, 
says : 

"  For,  behold,  in  those  days,  and  in  that  time,  when  I 
shall  bring  again  the  captivity  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem, 
I  will  also  gather  all  nations,  and  will  bring  them  down 
into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  will  plead  with  them 
there  for  my  people,  and  for  my  heritage  Israel,  whom 
they  have  scattered  among  the  nations,  and  parted  my 
land." 

*  Some  learned  and  excellent  writers,  such  as  Gumming,  Seiss,  and 
many  others,  may  object  to  our  view,  because  <iur  Lord  assured  His  dis- 
ciples that,  at  His  second  advent,  He  should  come  "  as  a  thief,"  that  is, 
with  the  suddenness  and  unexpectedness  of  a  thief,  "  in  the  night,"  '*  as 
a  snare,"  "  in  an  hour  that  ye  think  not,"  &c.,  and  because,  this  indefi- 
nite postponing  of  his  coming  robs  it  of  its  unexpectedness.  Not  at  all. 
The  apostate  nations  of  the  prophetic  earth,  and  the  sleeping  virgins  of 
His  church,  deceived  by  Antichrist's  counterfeit  millennium',  will  expect 
Hira  less  even  then,  than  now.  The  intermediate  restoration  of  Babylon 
and  the  delusive  glories  of  her  system  will  cause  His  coming  to  be,  not 
less,  but  all  the  more  unexpected,  all  the  more  a  snare. 


30  LITERAL     BABYLON. 

t 

This  passage  fixes,  most  definitely,  the  precise  period 
of  the  final  destruction  of  Babylon. 

If,  therefore,  the  captivity  of  Israel  and  Jerusalem  has 
not  been  "brought  again,"  as  we  know  it  has  not,  then, 
interpreting  Isaiah,  Jeremiah  and  Joel  together,  or, 
rather,  allowing  them  to  interpret  one  another,  it  is  alto- 
gether safe  to  say  that  Babylon  has  not,  as  yet,  been 
visited  with  her  final  doom. 

But  our  argument  rests  not  here.  It  would  be  incom- 
plete, if  we  failed  to  notice  the  harmony  of  history  with 
prophecy.  Even  if  the  past  destruction  of  Babylon  and  the 
present  condition  of  her  ruins  appeared  to  answer  to  the 
maledictions  of  prophecy,  still  it  is  none  the  less  certain 
that  their  final  fulfillment  must  be  future,  so  long  as  the 
two  families  of  the  House  of  Israel  remain  outcast,  their 
organized  nationality  unrestored,  and  their  sins  unfor- 
given.  But  they  do  not  so  answer,  or  so  appear  to  answer. 

What  are  these  maledictions,  and  how  far,  if  at  all, 
have  they  been  fulfilled? 

"  Her  cities  are  a  desolation,  a  dry  land,  and  a  wilder- 
ness, a  land  wherein  no  man  dwelleth,  neither  doth  any 
son  of  man  pass  thereby." — Jeremiah  li.  43. 

"  Because  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lord,  it  shall  not  be 
inhabited,  but  it  shall  be  wholly  desolate." — Jeremiah  1 ; 
13. 

"  For  every  purpose  of  the  Lord  shall  be  performed 
against  Babylon,  to  make  the  land  of  Babylon  a  desola- 
tion without  an  inhabitant." — Jeremiah  li.  29. 

"  And  they  shall  not  take  of  thee  a  stone  for  a  corner, 
nor  a  stone  for  foundations  ;  but  thou  shalt  be  desolate 
FOR  EVER,  saith  the  Lord." — Jeremiah  li.  26. 

"  And  Babylon,  the  glory  of  kingdoms,  the  beauty  of 


LITERAL      BABYLON.  31 

the  Chaldees'  excellency,  shall  be  as  when  God  overthrew 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  It  shall  never  be  inhabited, 
neither  shall  it  be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation  ; 
neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there." — Isaiah  xiii. 
19,  20. 

Bold  as  the  statement  may  appear,  and  contravening, 
as  it  does,  the  cherished  belief  of  so  many  thousand 
good  and  faithful  Christians  of  all  these  tarrying  ages, 
that  these  predictions  have  been  already  fulfilled,  and  in- 
deed, that  they  are  to  be  classed  among  the  very  highest 
completed  evidences  of  the  verity  of  prophecy,  and  the  in- 
fallibility of  God's  Word  ;  yet  itis  nevertheless  true,  that 
not  one  of  these  prophecies  has  ever  yet  been  fulfilled. 
God's  providence  in  history  is  a  not  less  infallible  teacher 
than  the  revelations  of  His  Word.  They  can  not  con- 
flict or  disagree.  Their  testimony,  if  carefully  sought  for, 
will  always  be  found  concurrent  and  harmonious.  ''  Her 
cities"  have  never,  in  point  of  fact,  been  "  a  desolation, 
a  dry  land,  and  a  wilderness,  where  no  man  dwelleth, 
neither  doth  any  son  of  man  pass  thereby."  Thousands 
upon  thousands  of  the  sons  of  men  have  passed  and  con- 
tinually pass  thereby,  have  crossed  and  re-crossed  her 
ruins,  throughout  their  whole  extent,  in  every  possible  di- 
rection. Thousands  upon  thousands  of  Arabians  have, 
not  only  casually  pitched  their  tents,  but  taken  up  their 
abodes  there,  which,  in  turn,  have  been  inhabited  by  their 
children  and  their  children's  children,  "  from  oreneration 
to  generation."  Within  the  last  seventy  years,  many 
European  travellers  of  high  note  and  unquestioned  au- 
thority, among  whom  may  be  named  Rich,  Buckingham, 
Iver  Porter,  Keppel,  Loftus,  Mignan,  Chesney  and  Lay- 
ard,  have  carefully  traversed  and  explored  her  ruins  in  all 


32  LITERAL     BABYLON. 

directions,  and  always  under  Arabian  escort.  The  ruins 
of  Babylon  contain,  in  their  very  midst,  the  Arab  city  of 
Hillah,  having  a  population  of  ten  thousand  inhabitants, 
the  brick  and  stone  composing  whose  "  corners "  and 
"foundations"  as  also  the  "corners"  and  "foundations"  of 
Seleucia,  Ctesiphon,  Kufa,  Kerbellah,  Baghdad,  and  other 
cities  in  the  neighborhood,  have  been  taken  from  the  ruins 
of  Babylon.  Not  a  few  of  the  inhabitants  of  her  ruins 
find  their  livelihood,  as  brick  and  stone  masons,  by  quarry- 
ing the  ruins  for  this  very  purpose.  This  is  proved  by 
the  testimony  of  every  traveller  who  has  visited  the  dis- 
trict of  Hillah.*  There  are  also  several  Arab  villages, 
inhabited  partly  in  tents,  within  the  limits  of  the  ruins. 
The  site  of  the  ancient  city,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
sixty  miles  in  circumference,  is  dotted  with  extensive 
gardens  and  date  groves,  which  latter  are  said  to  be  far 
superior  to  those  of  Egypt  and  the  finest  in  the  world ; 
also  with  fruitful  wheat  and  rice  fields  ;  and,  as  long  ago 
as  1812,  yielded,  as  Rich  informs  us,  an  annual  tribute  to 
its  Turkish  masters  of  300,000  piasters,  f     Colonel  Ches- 

*  See,  for  example,  Mignan's  Travels  in  Chaldea,  p.  177  :  "  Some  of 
the  ravines  [of  the  rnins  of  Babylon]  are  full  sixty  feet  deep,  which 
may  principally  be  attributed  to  the  Arabs,  who  were  constantly  at 
work  to  obtain  the  valuable  bricks,  which,  from  the  vicinity  of  the  river, 
are  with  little  trouble  and  expense  conveyed  to  Hillah,  or  any  to\\Tis 
north  or  south." 

t  Rich,  describing  Hillah  and  the  site  of  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  says : 
"  The  gardens  on  both  sides  of  the  river  [Euphrates]  are  very  extensive, 
so  that  the  tovm  appears  embosomed  in  a  wood  of  date  trees.  The  air 
is  salubrious,  and  the  soil  extremely  fertile,  producing  great  quantities 
of  rice,  dates,  and  grain  of  different  kinds,  though  it  is  not  cultivated  to 
above  half  the  degree  of  which  it  is  susceptible.  The  grand  cause  of 
this  fertility  is  the  Euphrates." 

Major  Skinner,  who  visited  it  in  1835,  thus  describes  his  approach  to 
Hillah:  "  I  crossed  by  a  bridge  of  boats  to  the  west  side,  which  was 
broad  and  firm,  over  which  I  measured  one  hundred  and  seventy  paces, 
giving  to  the  breadth  of  the  Euphrates  more  than  four  hundred  feet. 
1'he  bridge  was  naturally  a  great  thoroughfare,  and  I  passed  it  in  com- 
pany with  many  on  horseback  and  on  foot.  The  reach  of  the  river  be- 
low the  bridge  reflected  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  which  had  just 


LITERAL      BABYLON.  33 

ney,  who  surveyed  the  Euphratean  country  in  the  years 
1835,  1836,  and  1837,  under  a  commission  from  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  says,  ''  an  Arabian  tribe  were  encamped 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  ruins,  during  the  whole  time  of 
my  sojourn  there." 

Again  ;  not  the  least  striking  feature  of  the  predicted 
destruction  of  Babylon  is  its  suddenness. 

"  Babylon  hath  been  a  golden  cup  in  the  Lord's  hand, 
that  made  all  the  earth  drunken ;  the  nations  have 
drunken  of  her  wine  ;  therefore  the  nations  are  mad." 

"  Babylon  is  suddenly  fallen  and  destroyed  :  howl  for 
her." — Jeremiah  li.  7,  8. 

"  Therefore  shall  her  plagues  come  in  one  day,  death, 
and  mourning,  and  famine ;  and  she  shall  be  utterly 
burned  with  fire." 

"  Alas,  alas  that  great  city,  that  was  clothed  in  fine 
linen,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  decked  with  gold,  and 
precious  stones,  and  pearls  !  for  in  one  hOlJR  so  great 
riches  is  come  to  nau";ht." 

"  Alas,  alas  that  great  city,  wherein  were  made  rich 
all  that  had  ships  in  the  sea  by  reason  of  her  costliness  ! 
for  IN  one  hour  is  she  made  desolate." 

"  And  a  mighty  angel  took  up  a  stone  like  a  great  mill- 
stone, and  cast  it  into  the  sea,  saying,  Thus  with  violence 
shall  that  great  city  Babylon  be  thrown  down,  and  shall 
be  found  no  more  at  all." — Rev.  xviii.  8,  16,  17,  19,  21. 

turned  everything  to  gold,  and  the  long  rows  of  date  trees  really  trlit- 
tered  in  the  bosom  of  the  stream." 

Buckingham  thus  describes  his  approach  to  Hillah  :  "  On  gaining  the 
summit  of  this  huge  mass  [amidst  the  ruins]  we  had  the  first  sight  of 
the  Euphrates,  flowing  majestically  along  through  verdant  banks,  and 
Its  serpentme  course  apparently  losing  itself  in  the  palm  groves  of  Hil- 
lah, whose  mosques  and  minarets  we  could  just  perceive  about  five 
miles  to  the  southward  of  us." 

Verily,  descriptions  of  anything  rather  than  "  a  land  made  desolate 
so  that  no  man  shall  dwell  therein  !  "  * 

4 


34  LITERAL    BABYLON. 

"  And  it  shall  be,  when  thou  hast  made  an  end  of  read- 
ing this  book,  that  thou  shalt  bind  a  stone  to  it,  and  east 
it  into  the  midst  of  the  Euphrates  :  and  thou  shalt  say, 
Thus  [thus  suddenly  and  violently]  shall  Babylon  sink, 
and  not  rise  from  the  evil  that  I  will  bring  upon  her." — 
Jer.  li.  63,  64. 

But  the  predictions  of  the  suddenness  have  not  been  any 
more  fulfilled  than  those  of  the  fulness  of  her  destruction. 
There  is  nothing  in  history  that  tends,  in  the  slightest  de- 
gree, to  verify  either  of  these  required  conditions  of  her 
final  destruction.  That  Babylon  has  been  destroyed,  no 
one  will  deny,  but  that  her  destruction  was  the  result, 
not  of  sudden  violence,  but  of  gradual  declension,  is 
equally  undeniable. 

"  At  the  noise  of  the  taking  of  Babylon,  the  earth  is 
moved,  and  the  cry  is  heard  among  the  nations — Babylon 
is  suddenly  fallen  and  destroyed."  Jeremiah  1:46.  But 
the  earth  was  never  moved  less  by  any  event  than  by  the 
taking  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus.  All  that  is  said  of  it  in 
Scripture  is,  "  In  that  night  was  Belshazzar,  the  king  of 
the  Chaldeans,  slain,  and  Darius,  the  Mede,  took  the 
kingdom."  Daniel  v.  31.  It  was  no  destruction  of  the 
city.  It  was  anything  rather  than  suddenly  destroyed. 
It  was  the  simple  occupation  of  the  throne  of  Babylon  by 
one  person  instead  of  another,  a  quiet  transfer  of  power 
from  one  dynasty  to  another,  without  commotion  or  vio- 
lence, or  any  considerable  destruction  or  slaughter.  The 
sentries  of  the  king  w^ere  the  only  victims.  Herodotus 
relates  that  (Cyrus  having  taken  the  city  in  the  night)  it 
was  not  till  three  hours  after  sunrise  that  the  inhabitants 
of  quarters  distant  from  the  palace  knew  they  were  living 
under  a  Persian  satrapy.     More  than  two   hundred  years 


LITERAL    BABYLON.  35 

after  the  capture  of  the  city  by  Cyrus,  so  far  from 
having  been  suddenly  destroyed  at  that  or  any  subse- 
quent period,  it  was,  under  the  reign  of  Alexander,  one 
of  the  chief  cities  of  the  East,  the  metropolis  of  his  do- 
minion. St.  Peter  wrote  his  epistle  there  in  the  sixty- 
fifth  year  of  the  Christian  era,  more  than  six  hundred 
years  after  the  capture  of  the  city  by  Cyrus.  Long  after 
the  establishment  of  Christianity,  the  patriarch  of  Babylon 
was  one  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  rulers  of  the  East. 
Four  hundred  and  sixty  years  after  Christ,  Theodoret 
speaks  of  Babylon  as  being  inhabited  in  part,  by  Jews. 
Five  hundred  years  after  Christ,  the  famous  Babylonian 
Talmud  was  promulgated.  Nine  hundred  and  seventeen 
years  after  Christ,  Babel  is  mentioned  as  a  small  village 
on  the  site  of  Babylon.  The  city  of  Hillah,  before  re- 
ferred to,  was  enlarged  and  fortified  eleven  hundred  years 
after  Christ.  Skinner  speaks  of  Hillah  as  a  city,  in 
eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-three,  of  twelve  thousand 
inhabitants.  Not  long  since  a  bishop  of  Babylon  was 
consecrated  by  the  Pope. 

No  period  in  the  declension  of  Babylon  has  ever  been 
marked  by  any  of  the  attending  signs  and  tokens,  so  nu- 
merously connected  in  Scripture  with  its  sudden,  its  utter, 
its  final,  overthrow. 

But  what  profiteth  it  to  multiply  evidence,  to  show 
that  the  predictions  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  concerning 
the  final  destruction  of  Babylon,  have  never  been  fulfilled? 

Babylon  has  never  been  that  great  maritime  and  com- 
mercial city  described  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  the 
Revelation.  She  was  anything  rather  than  a  city  of  mer- 
chants in  the  days  of  Chaldea,  Persia,  Greece,  or  Rome. 

Wherefore,  we  afiirm  that  Babylon,  before  she  can  be 


36 


LITERAL      BABYLON. 


destroyed  accorcling  to  the  predictions  of  Isaiah,  Jere- 
miah and  the  apostle  John,  than  the  fulfihnent  of  which 
nothing  can  be  more  certain,  must  first  he  restored.  That 
she  Avill  be  restored  in  more  than  her  ancient  splendor, 
and  be  the  crowning  glory  of  our  Gentile  civilization,  we 
can  in  no  wise  doubt,  when  we  remember  the  words  with 
which  the  apostle  of  the  Revelation  records  her  final 
doom.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  reveals  only  the 
closing  scenes  of  the  present  dispensation,  thus  establish- 
ing, beyond  a  question,  the  futurity  of  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  Babylon. 

"  After  these  things  I  saw  another  angel,  coming 
down  from  heaven,  having  great  authority ;  and  the 
earth  was  lightened  with  his  glory.  And  he  cried  with  a 
mighty  voice,  saying,  Fallen,  fallen  is  Babylon  the  great, 
....  because  by  reason  of  the  wrath  of  her  forni- 
cation all  the  nations  have  fallen,  and  the  kings  of  the 
earth  committed  fornication  with  her,  and  the  merchants 
of  the  earth  waxed  rich  through  the  power  of  her  delica- 
cies  Because  she  saith  in  her  heart,  'I  sit  a  queen 

and  am  not  a  widow,  and  shall  see  no  mourning.'  There- 
fore IN  ONE  DAY  shall  her  plagues  come,  death,  and  mourn- 
ing, and  famine,  and  she  shall  be  utterly  burned  with  fire, 

because  mighty  is  the  Lord  who  judged  her And 

the  merchants  of  the  earth  weep  and  mourn,  ....  and 
every  shipmaster,  and  every  passenger,  and  sailors,  and 
as  many  as  trade  by  the  sea,  stood  afar  off,  and  cried 
when  they  saw  the  smoke  of  her  burning,  saying,  '  what 
city  is  like  unto  the  great  city,  ....  alas  !  alas  the  great 
city,  wherein  were  made  rich  all  that  had  ships  in  the 
sea,  by  reason  of  her  costliness  !  because  in  one  hour  was 
she  made  desolate.'    And  a  mighty  angel  took  up  a  stone, 


LITERAL      BABYLOX.  37 

like  a  great  mill-stone,  and  cast  it  into  the  sea,  saying, 
'  Thus  with  violence  shall  the  great  city  Babylon  be 
thrown  down,  and  shall  no  more  be  found  at  all.' " 

The  Babylon  here  described,  for  so  Scripture  expressly 
and  repeatedly  assures  us,  is  Babylon  "  in  the  land  of 
Chaldea,"  not,  as  some  have  supposed,  Rome  in  the  land 
of  Italy.  We  have  been  able  to  discover  in  Scripture  no 
color  of  evidence  that  there  are  two  cities  described 
therein  with  the  name  of  Babylon  common  to  both.  It 
appears  to  us  a  wholly  fanciful  and  unwarranted  substitu- 
tion of  names.  The  prophets  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  as  if 
eiFectually  to  forestall  any  such  substitution,  are  most 
careful  uniformly  to  locate  the  Babylon  whose  destruction 
they  foretell,  in  Chaldea.  As  for  instance  :  "  Come  down 
and  sit  in  the  dust,  O  virgin  daughter  of  Babylon,  sit  on 
the  ground :  there  is  no  throne,  0  daughter  of  the  Chal- 
deans^ for  thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  tender  and  deli- 
cate, ....  sit  thou  silent,  and  get  thee  into  darkness, 
O  daughter  of  the  Chaldeans  :  for  thou  shalt  no  more  be 
called  the  lady  of  kingdoms." 


CHAPTER    III. 


THE  SYMBOLIC  BABYLON  OF  PROPHECY. 

ITS  COMPOSITE   CHARACTER,  INCLUDING,  NOT  ROMANISM   ONLY, 

BUT   ALL   FORMS     OF   FALSE   RELIGION 

AND   INFIDELITY. 

The  eighteenth  chapter  of  the  Revelation  describes  the 
literal  Babylon,  the  seventeenth  the  symbolic  Babylon,  of 
prophecy. 

Two  of  the  most  notable  symbols  of  prophetic  Scrip- 
ture are  presented  in  the  seventeenth  chapter,  those  of 
the  '''- ivojnan"  and  the  "  teasL"  The  beast  is  the  same 
as  described  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Daniel,  and  has 
been  sufficiently  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chapter.  But 
the  woman,  in  the  present  prophetic  connection,  is  a 
symbol  peculiar  to  the  prophet  of  the  Revelation,  and 
is  thus  described. 

"And  there  came  one  of  the  seven  angels  who  had 
the  seven  bowls,  and  talked  with  me,  saying,  Come 
hither ;  I  will  shew  unto  thee  the  judgment  of  the 
great  harlot  that  sitteth  upon  many  waters,  with  whom 
the  kings  of  the  earth  committed  fornication,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  were  made  drunk  with  the  wine 
of  her  fornication.  And  he  carried  me  away  into  the 
wilderness  in  the  spirit :  and  I  saw  a  woman  sitting 
upon  a  scarlet  beast,  full  of  names  of  blasphemy,  having 


SYMBOLIC    BABYLON.  39 

seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  And  the  woman  was 
clothed  in  purple  and  scarlet,  and  decked  with  gold, 
and  precious  stones  and  pearls,  having  a  cup  of  gold 
in  her  hand  full  of  abominations — and  the  filthiness  of 
her  fornication,  and  upon  her  forehead  a  name  written,  a 
Mystery,  Babylon  the  Great,  the  Mother  of  the 
Harlots  and  the  Abominations  [Idolatries]  of  the 
E.VRTH." — Rev.  xvii.  1 — 5.     Tregelles'  Translation. 

Woman  is  the  invariable  Scripture  symbol  of  a  moral 
system,  good  or  evil.  The  woman  here  described  is  the 
symbol  of  a  manifestly  and  to  the  last  and  most  oppro- 
brious degree  evil  system.  She  is  seen  sitting  upon  a 
scarlet  colored  beast,  and  is  at  first  represented  as  his 
mistress,  guiding  and  controlling  him.  He  is  her  ser- 
vant, obsequious  to  her  Avill,  and  upholds  and  supports 
her ;  but,  afterwards,  when  she  has  served  his  purposes 
sufficiently,  when  he  no  longer  requires  her  aid  and  her 
enchantments,  when  he  is  able  to  assert  and  maintain 
supreme  dominion  without  them,  then  "  the  ten  horns 
which  thou  sawest  [which  are  symbols  of  the  ten  kings 
of  the  prophetic  earth]  and  the  beast  l^xai  to  <3»;ot'or],  these 
shall  hate  the  harlot^  and  shall  make  her  desolate  and 
naked,  and  shall  eat  her  flesh,  and  hum  her  with  fire.  For 
God  hath  put  into  their  hearts  to  fulfil  his  mind  \_and  to 
make  one  mind~\,  and  to  give  their  kingdom  unto  the  heast, 
until  the  words  of  God  shall  he  completed." — Rev.  xvii. 
16,  17.     Tregelles'  Translation. 

Wherefore  it  appears  that  the  woman  is  to  be  destroyed 
when  this  last  and  sole  despot  of  the  prophetic  earth 
shall,  through  her  agency,  and  by  means  of  her  allure- 
ments, have  brought  the  ten  kingdoms,  into  which  the 
Roman    earth    will    then  have    been   divided,    into    sub- 


40  SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 

jection  to  that  dominion  of  which  he  will  be  the  imperial 
head,  "  glorifying  himself  as  God,"  "  until  the  Avords  of 
God  shall  be  fulfilled." 

Who  is  this  woman,  and  who  the  beast?  The  former 
inquiry  we  propose  to  answer  in  this  chapter,  the  latter  in 
the  chapter  next  following. 

But,  first,  we  Avill  endeavor  to  define,  with  more 
strict  and  careful  precision,  the  specific  sphere  of  their 
dominion. 

Her  dominion,  so  far  as  it  is  described  in  the  above 
chapter,  is  only  referred  to  as  co-extensive  with  his,  not 
as  exceeding  it. 

His  dominion  will  be  the  prophetic  earth  of  Daniel  and 
the  Revelation,  as  defined  in  a  former  chapter.  It  Avill, 
be  well,  for  the  sake  of  greater  definiteness,  to  enumerate, 
under  their  modern  names,  the  countries  and  provinces 
included  Avithin  the  Roman  earth,  the  identity  of  which 
with  the  prophetic  earth  has  been  shoAvn. 

The  Roman  empire  (which  first  assumed  its  full  impe- 
rial standing  in  succession  to  Greece  when  Augustus 
Cassar  conquered  Cleopatra)  attained  its  widest  territorial 
development  under  Trajan.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the 
countries  then  included  within  its  limits.* 

IN   WESTERN   AND   NORTH-WESTERN   EUROPE. 

England  and  Scotland  :  7zo^  Ireland. 

Spain  and  Portugal. 

France  and  Savoy. 

Belgium  and  parts  of  Holland  west  of  the  Rhine. 

Luxembourg  and  Bavarian  territory  west  of  the  Rhine. 

Rhenish  Prussia  west  of  the  Rhine. 

*  We  adopt  the  enumeration  of  Dr.  B.  W.  Newton. 


SYMBOLIC    BABYLON.  41 

Baden,  "Wiirtemberg,  and  the  southern  half  of  Bavaria. 
Switzeihmd. 

IX   SOUTHERN   AND   SOUTH-EASTERN   EUROPE. 

Italy. 

Greece. 

All  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Turkey  in  Europe  south  of  the  Danube,  including  Bos- 
nia, Servia  and  Bulgaria. 

Austrian  provinces  south  of  the  Danube,  including  the 
southwestern  wing  of  Hungary  and  that  part  of  the  Ba- 
nat  Avhich  lies  east  of  the  Roman  Vallum. 

Transylvania,  AVallachia,  Moldavia,  and  Bessarabia  ; 
these  four  countries  being  situate  north  of  the  Danube, 
and  answering  to  Trajan's  province  of  Dacia. 


The  Turkish  dominions,  taking  Assyria  as  the  most 
easterly  province,  and  an  imaginary  line  skirting  the  north 
of  Arabia  to  Egypt  as  the  southern  limit.  This  division 
includes,  of  course,  Palestine  and  Asia  Minor. 

IN   AFRICA. 

'  Egypt  and  the  whole  northern  coast,  namely,  Barca, 
Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algeria,  Morocco  and  Fez  ;  Salle,  a  little 
outside  of  the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  being  the  most  Avest- 
erly  city. 

Such  are  the  countries  that  fall  within  the  ""Orhis  Ter- 
rarum*'  of  the  Romans:  the  Uana  I'j  aly.ovuivii  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  such  the  prophetic  earth  of  Daniel  and  the  Revela- 
tion ;  such  the  sphere  of  the  dominion  of  the  woman  and 
the  beast ;  such  the  boundaries  of  their  empire.  "We 
would  not  imply  that  their  influence  will  be  circumscribed 
G 


42  SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 

-with  that  rigid  and  absolute  precision  which  these  limits 
would  indicate,  or  that  it  will  not  be  widely  and  destruc- 
tively felt  beyond  them  ;  but  we  speak  now  only  of  tlie 
predicted  sphere  within  which,  according  to  prophetic 
Scripture,  they  will  bear  rule. 

The  reign  of  the  woman  and  the  beast,  in  their  ac- 
complished supremacy  of  dominion,  is  clearly  future. 

It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  the  beast  is  a 
symbol  of  Pagan  Kome,  and  the  woman  of  Paganism. 
This  can  not  be,  for  the  prophet  of  the  Revelation  ex- 
pressly assures  us  that  the  beast  "is  to  ascend''  {[ikUit 
uraSatrsir),  whercas,  wheu  the  prophet  wrote.  Pagan  Rome 
had  already  ascended  to  the  height  of  its  power. 

It  has  also  been  supposed  that  the  beast  represents 
Papal  Rome,  and  the  woman  the  Papacy.  But  this 
supposition  must  be  equally  erroneous,  for  the  same 
prophet  no  less  expressly  declares  that  "  the  ten  liorns  and 
the  beast  {y.al  jo  6>;oto  )  these  shall  hate  the  harlot,  and 
shall  make  her  desolate  and  naked,  and  shall  eat  her  flesh 
and  burn  her  with  fire."  Rev.  xvii.  16.  If,  therefore,  the 
latter  supposition  were  true,  it  would  involve  the  neces- 
sity of  the  Pope's  destroying  the  Papacy,  in  order  to  exalt 
himself  to  supreme  dominion,  as  Pope,  which  would  be 
absurd. 

Again  ;  the  reign  of  the  woman  and  the  beast  must 
be  future,  for  Avhat  sovereign  system,  symbolised  by 
the  Avoman,  reigns,  or  has  ever  reigned,  over  ten  kings 
of  the  prophetic  earth ?  When  has  the  prophetic  earth, 
the  territory  of  the  Roman  Empire  (eastern  and  Avestern 
divisions  together),  been  divided  into  ten  separate  and 
independent  kingdoms,  or  been  ruled  over  by  ten  confed- 
erated and  conspiring  kings,  and  they  been   subject   to  a 


SYMBOLIC      BALJYLOX.  43 


single  sovereign,  to  whom  they  have  conciirred  to  "give 
their  kingdoms  until  the  Avords  of  God  shall  be  fulfilled," 
and  with  whom  they  have  concurred  to  hate  and  destroy 
that  system?  What  single  sovereign  wears,  or  has 
ever  Avorn,  these  ten  prophetic  diadems,  or  held  these  ten 
prophetic  realms  subject  to  his  sceptre?  If  such  a  system 
and  such  a  sovereign  have  existed  not  in  the  past,  and 
exist  not  now,  then  must  their  predicted  reign  be  future, 
Avhat  types  so  ever  have  signified,  or  may  now  signify, 
their  character  or  their  appearing. 

The  Papacy  furnishes  no  evidence  of  any  drift  in  this 
direction.     The  confluent  floods  of  a   system  so  compre- 
hensive, so  all-embracing,  as  symbolic  Babylon,  can  never 
flow  in  so  shallow  a  channel,  between   banks   so  narroAV, 
or  be  impeded  by  the  opposing  but  ineffectual  waves  of  so 
confined  and  exclusive  an   ecclesiasticism.     Modern  ten- 
dencies set  overwhelmingly  in  other  directions.     The  Pa- 
pacy can  not  hold  her   own    at  their  side,  excepting  as  a 
concurring   force?      And,    surely,    the    channel    is    deep 
enough  and   the  stream   wide   enough    for   all,  for  sym- 
bolic Babylon  is  the  mother  not  of  this  harlot,  or  of  that, 
only, — not  the  slightest  limitation  in  this  regard  is  intim- 
ated by  the  prophet— but   of  all  the  harlots,  of  all  the 
evil  systems.       So  prolific  and  comprehensive  a  maternity 
can  not  be  predicated  of  any  one  known  system,   of  Ro- 
manism, or  of  Judaism,  or    of  Mohammedanism,  or  of 
the  Greek  Church,  or  of  Iliudooism,  or  of  any  or  all  forms 
of  infidel   protestantism,  or  of  any  or  all  forms  of  ritual- 
ism or  ecclesiasticism,  most  of  all   of  one  so  exclusive, 
so  unsympathetic,  so  jealous    and   exacting,  so    offensive 
to  its  sister  harlots,  as  Romanism.     What  more  improb- 
able, not  to  say  impossible,  in  the  light  of  present  tenden- 


44  SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 

cies,  than  that  any  one  of  the  systems  thus  named  or 
referred  to  should  ever  absorb  and  become  the  sover- 
eign mistress  of  all  ?  No  !  the  exclusiveness  of  each  and 
every  one  of  these  systems  excludes  it  from  so  extended 
sway,  from  that  universality  of  dominion  ascribed  to 
symbolic  Babylon.  "  And  in  her  ivas  found  the  hlood  of 
prophets,  and  of  saints,  and  o/all  that  have  heen  slain 
upon  the  earths — Rev.  xviii.  24. 

Nor,  if  it  Avere  probable,  which,  from  present  appear- 
ances, is  not  in  the  least  so,  that  Romanism,  or  any  one 
of  these  systems,  would  ever  become  co-extensive  with 
the  prophetic  or  Roman  earth,  would  it  be  possible 
tliat  the  stain  of  exclusive  and  universal  blood-guilti- 
ness should  ever  rest  upon  Romanism,  or  upon  any  one  of 
these  systems,  which  system  so  ever  may  have  shed,  or 
shall  shed,  the  most  blood.  The  blood  which  Paganism 
has  shed  can  never  be  said  to  attach  to  Romanism.  No 
more  can  the  blood  which  Judaism,  or  Hindooism,  or 
Mohammedanism,  or  the  Greek  Church,  or  an  infidel 
protestantism,  or  any  other  evil  system,  has  shed,  or  may 
shed,  be  said  to  attach  to  her.  To  no  city  which  Roman- 
ism has  ever  occupied,  or  can  occupy,  as  her  ecclesiastical 
seat  and  metropolitan  centre,  can  so  solitary  a  preemi- 
nence, so  unshared  a  monopoly,  of  blood-guiltiness,  be  said 
to  attach  ;  certainly  so  long  as  she  remains  true  to  her 
record,  and  so  long  as  her  present  characteristics  and  dis- 
position remain  unchanged,  nor  ever,  indeed,  unless,  for- 
sooth, she  should  so  loosen  the  iron  fetters  of  her  ecclesi- 
asticism,  and  so  extend  the  shelter  of  her  wings,  as,  not  to 
tolerate  only,  but  to  absorb  and  concentrate  within  herself, 
so  as  to  make  wholly  her  own,  and  contract  and  assume 
the    proper   responsibility,   and  respective   guilt,  of  each 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLON.  45 

and  all  the  other  evil  systems  and  forms  of  harlotry,  from 
the  lowest  and  most  debased  of  Paganism,  to  the  highest 
and  most  refined  of  an  infidel  and  self-glorifying  protestant- 
ism. She  must  become  the  fond,  the  loving,  the  accred- 
ited foster-mother  alike  of  the  JeAvish  and  the  Greek,  the 
Hindoo  and  the  Mohammedan,  and  all  other  abomina- 
tions. They,  and,  with  them,  the  ten  kings  and  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  prophetic  earth,  must  joyfully  accept,  and  be 
made  drunk  by,  the  golden  cup  of  the  wine  of  the  wrath 
of  her  fornication.  She  must  brood  with  as  fond  and  so- 
licitous a  maternity  over  the  polished  Pagan  worshippers 
of  Mars'  Hill,  as  over  kings  and  priests  and  long  trains  of 
loAvlier  worshippers  "svithin  the  courts  of  her  own  tem- 
ples. She  must  bow  as  supple  a  knee  to  the  Jupi- 
ter Ultor  of  the  Pantheon,  as  to  the  paintings  and 
frescoes  of  the  Vatican.  She  must  know  no  differ- 
ence in  her  lustful  embrace,  between  the  juggling  priests 
of  the  East,  the  licentious  fetich  Avorshippers  of  the  South, 
and  the  learned  and  pcdite,  but  conceited  and  scornful, 
defamers  and  defiers  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  "  speaking 
great  and  blasphemous  things  against  the  Most  High  " 
from  the  chairs  of  the  protestant  academies  of  the  AVest. 
She  must  accept,  nothing  loth,  the  transfer  to  her  own 
skirts  of  all  the  stains  of  blood-guiltiness  to  be  found  upon 
the  skirts  of  all  her  sister  harlots,  for  in  her,  if  she  be 
symbolic  Babylon,  must  be  found  the  "  blood  of  prophets, 
and  of  saints,  and  of  all  that  have  been  slain  upon  the 
earth."  Ah  no  !  Romanism  has  in  reserve  for  her  no  fu- 
ture such  as  this.  Xo  tokens,  not  the  remotest,  of  such  a 
destiny  are  to  be  discerned.  The  ''  Mores  Catholici,"  the 
"  Ages  of  Faith,"  are  past. 

Who,    then,    is   this    woman    of   the    Revelation,    this 


46  SYMBOLIC      BABYLON. 

mother  of   [«?/]   the  harlots,  and  [«//]  the  abominatioDS 
of  the  earth"  ? 

We  have  located  the  sphere  of  her  dominion,  and  de- 
fined its  boundaries.  We  have  rendered  certain  the  futu- 
rity of  her  reign.  We  have  seen  who  she  is  not  and  can 
not  be.  But  does  not  Scripture  reveal  to  us  who  she  is, 
any  sign  by  which  we  may  identify  her  presence  or  dis- 
cern her  approach  ?  Most  assuredly.  The  woman  hath 
her  types  and  her  precursors  not  fewer  nor  less  notable 
than  the  beast.  More  than  this,  her  exact  lineaments 
can  be  quite  as  precisely  and  unmistakably  traced  and 
defined. 

In  the  first  place,  she  is  to  be  inseparably  associated,  if 
not  absolutely  identified,  with  a  world-wide  commercial 
system,  of  proportions  more  grand,  more  deftly  harmon- 
ized, more  glorious  (according  to  the  standards  of  earthly 
glory),  than  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  prophet  Zechariah  had  a  vision  of  her,  considered 
in  this  aspect.  "  Then  the  angel  that  talked  with  me 
went  forth,  and  said  unto  me.  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes  and 
see  what  is  this  that  goeth  forth.  And  I  said,  What  is  it? 
And  he  said,  This  is  an  ephah  that  goeth  forth.  He  said 
moreover.  This  is  their  resemblance  [aspect  or  appear- 
ance,] through  all  the  earth.  And,  behold,  then  there 
was  lifted  up  a  talent  [weighty  piece]  of  lead  ;  and  this 
is  the  woman  that  sitteth  in  the  midst  of  the  ephah.  And 
he  said,  This  is  wickedness.  And  he  cast  it  into  the  midst 
of  the  ephah  ;  and  he  cast  the  weight  of  lead  upon  the 
mouth  thereof.  Then  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes  and  looked, 
and,  behold,  there  came  out  two  women,  and  the  wind 
was  in  tlieir  wings  ;  for  they  had  wings  like  the  wings  of 
a  stork  :  and  they  lifted  up  the  ephah  between  the  earth 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLON.  47 


and  the  heaven.  Then  said  I  to  the  angel  that  talked  Avith 
me,  Whither  do  they  bear  the  ephah?  And  he  said  unto 
me,  To  build  it  an  house  in  the  land  of  Shinar  ;  and  it 
shall  be  established  and  set  there  upon  her  own  base." 

The  ephah  was  a  Hebrew  measure  of  all  kinds  of  solids 
and  liquids,  equivalent  to  about  seven  and  a  half  gallons 
of  our  measure.  It  was  the  Hebrew  emblem  of  com- 
merce, the  symbol  of  merchants.  The  ephah  of  this  vis- 
ion, when  first  seen  by  the  prophet,  was  in  motion,  "  go- 
ing forth."  Afterwards,  though  at  first  invisible  (being 
concealed  therein  by  a  weighty  cover  of  lead)  the  cover 
being  removed,  a  woman  (the  remembered  symbol  of  a 
moral  system)  is  disclosed  to  the  view  of  the  prophet, 
sitting  in  the  midst  of  the  ephah.  After  which  the  angel 
casts  into  the  ephah  another  Avoman,  who  is  named  by  the 
angel  "  wickedness."  He  then  casts  upon  the  ephah  its 
cover  of  lead,  concealing  both  from  the  prophet's  sight. 
Finally  (and  we  are  now  introduced  to  the  sequel  of  the 
vision,  to  the  closing  events  symbolized  by  it)  the  two 
women  are  seen  to  break  forth  from  their  confinement, 
to  exalt  their  haughty  symbol  between  the  earth  and  the 
heaven,  and  to  bear  it,  with  swift  Avings  and  strong. 
Where?  "To  the  laud  of  Shinar."  Wherefore?  "To 
build  it  an  house  there,  to  establish  it,  and  set  her  upon 
her  own  base  there." 

We  have,  therefore,  in  this  vision,  first,  the  symbol, 
not  of  a  commercial  system  only,  but  of  a  vast  commercial 
system,  for  "  this  is  their  resemblance  through  all  the 
earth."  We  are  next  introduced  to  the  moral  systems 
Avhich,  under  the  symbol  of  the  two  Avomen,  are  seen  to 
inhabit  that  system  ;  Avhich  assume  the  sovereign  control 
of  it ;  Avhicli  actuate  and  inspire  it ;  Avhich  direct  and  de- 


48  SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 

termine  its  movements  ;  which  buikl  for  it  an  house,  a  lit- 
eral city,  and  establish  for  it  a  dwelling  place.  That  city 
is  declared  to  be  on  the  plains  of  Shinar,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  in  the  land  of  Babylon. 

Now  Zechariah  is  preeminently  a  latter  day  prophet. 
He  details,  to  a  more  remarkable  and  circumstantial  ex- 
tent than,  perhaps,  any  other  Old  Testament  prophet, 
those  scenes  which  are  to  be  immediately  associated  with 
the  conversion  and  the  dawning  of  the  millennial  glory 
of  the  House  of  Israel.  The  vision  of  the  ephah  must, 
therefore,  have  specific  connection  with  those  scenes,  with 
that  period  of  the  world's  history  in  which  they  will  occur. 
It  teaches  us  that  not  the  sceptre,  or  the  sword,  or  the 
mitre,  but  the  ephah  is  the  appointed  symbol  of  that  pe- 
riod ;  that  at  least  one  of  its  chief  characteristics  will  be 
a  colossal,  world-wide  and  most  imposing  commercial  sys- 
tem ;  that  that  system  will  have  been  controlled,  and  will 
doubtless  be  controlled  unto  the  very  end,  by  two  women, 
two  moral  systems,  and  that  the  name  of  one  of  them  will 
be  "  Wickedness." 

Turn  now  to  the  apostle  Paul.  In  discoursing  to  the 
Thessalonians  of  the  second  coming  of  our  Saviour,  he 
says  (we  translate  literally  from  the  Greek)  : 

"  That  day  [the  day  of  the  Lord]  will  not  commence 
except  there  first  come  the  apostasy  ;  and  the  man  of  sin 

be  revealed,  the  son  of  perdition  [the  'beast'?] 

Ye  know  that  at  at  present  there  is  that  which  restrainetii 
[tlic  talent  of  lead  that  covered  the  ephah?]  in  order  that 
he  might  be  revealed  in  his  appointed  season.  For  the 
mystery  [and  '  upon  her  forehead  a  name  was  written. 
Mystery,']  of  ivickedness  (u.o«/u'c,  lawlessness)  [of  her 
who  was  cast  by  the  angel  into  the  ephah  ?]  is  already 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLON.  49 

Avorking  [so  prevalent  when  the  apostle  wrote,  among  the 
Sacldiieees,  the  Herodians,  tlie  Athenians  and  others], 
only  there  is  at  present  one  that  restraineth  [the  angel 
who  cast  the  talent  of  lead  upon  the  mouth  of  the 
ephah?],  imtil  it  become  developed  out  of  the  midst  [out 
of  the  midst  of  what  ?  the  ephah  ?]  and  then  shall  the 
wicked  one  [6  urouog,  the  lawless  one,  the  masculine  of 
urouiu,  "wickedness"]  be  revealed,  whom  the  Lord  shall 
consume  by  the  breath  of  his  moutli,  and  destroy  by  the 
brightness  of  his  coming." — 2  Thess.  ii.  3 — 9. 

What  is  this  but  an  immaterially  differing  account  of 
one  and  the  same  order  of  events  predicted  by  Zechariah  ? 
Wha;  but  a  reciprocal  interpretation,  ihe  one  prophet  by 
the  other? 

Turn  again  to  the  great  New  Testament  prophet  of  the 
closing  scenes  of  the  present  dispensation.  He  describes 
the  harlot.  He  calls  her  by  name.  He  locates  her  on 
the  plains  of  Shinar,  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  in 
the  land  of  Babylon,  seated  in  her  own  house,  established 
on  her  own  base.  He  makes  her  house  the  great  mer- 
chant city  of  the  earth,  "whose  merchants  are  princes," 
the  metropolis  of  a  world's  commerce,  reigned  over  by 
her  as  its  sovereign  mistress,  entertaining,  in  her  satanic 
hospitality,  and  making  drunk  with  the  wine  of  the  wrath 
of  her  fornication,  the  kings  and  inhabitants  of  the  apos- 
tate Roman  earth. 

"  All  that  have  ships  in  the  sea  will  be  made  rich  by 
reason  of  her  costliness  ....  and  every  ship-master, 
and  every  passenger,  and  sailors,  and  as  many  as  trade 
by  the  sea  [will  be  there]  ....  and  merchandise,  the 
merchandise  of  gold,  and  of  silver,  and  precious  stones, 
and  of  pearls,    and   of  fine  linen,  and   of  purple  and   of 


50  SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 

scarlet  and  all  thyine  wood,  and  every  vessel  of  ivory, 
and  every  vessel  of  most  precious  wood,  and  of  brass,  and 
of  iron  and  of  marble,  and  of  cinnamon,  and  spice,  and 
odors,  and  ointment,  and  frankincense  and  wine,  and  oil, 
and  fine  flour  and  wheat,  and  cattle  and  sheep,  and  of 
horses,  and  of  chariots,  and  of  the  bodies  and  souls  of 
men." — Rev.  xviii. 

Such  will  be  the  house  of  the  ephah  in  the  land  of 
Shinar. 

Dr.  Chalmers,  commenting  upon  this  passage  from  the 
Revelation,  says  :  "  Revelation  xviii.  What  can  be  the 
city  here  spoken  of?  It  is  much  liker  London  than  Rome 
— a  commercial  than  a  mere  ecclesiastical  capital.  The 
lamentation  of  the  kings  for  Babylon  point  more  to  the 
ecclesiastical  capital  of  their  monarchies,  whereas  the 
description  of  her  wealth  and  merchandise  point  greatly 
more  to  our  own  London.  The  lamentation  of  the  sailors 
points  more  to  a  place  of  great  shipping  interest  than  to 
Rome  or  any  place  in  Italy,  and  strengthens  the  argu- 
ment for  its  being  the  capital  of  our  own  land.  We  can 
not  observe  that  shipmasters  are  much  engaged  by  the 
traffic  of  Rome ;  and  their  lamentation  seems  far  more 
applicable  to  London,  lapsed,  it  may  be,  when  the  period 
of  this  fidfilment  comes  round,  into  Antichristianism.  The 
merchants  of  our  own  land  are  far  more  the  great  men 
of  the  earth  than  those  of  any  other  nation." — Sabbath 
Scripture  Readings,  vol.  iv.,  p.  423. 

Now  it  will  not  be  denied,  in  view  of  this  and  abundant 
other  evidence  to  the  same  effect,  in  view,  indeed,  of  the 
knowledge  and  observation  of  all,  that  England  is,  at 
present,  the  chief  representative  centre  of  the  commerce 
of  the  world  ;  or  that  London  is   an  understood  synonym 


SYMBOLIC    BABYLON.  51 

for,  SO  to  speak,  the  capital  of  a  vast,  world-wide,  and 
more  and  more  increasingly  venal,  commercial  system. 
Not,  by  any  means,  would  we  imply,  however,  that  Lon- 
don is,  or  is  destined  to  be,  the  literal  Babylon  of  the  Rev- 
elation, in  however  impressive  a  sense  she  may  typify  her. 
In  view  of  the  express  declarations  of  prophecy  (to  which 
we  have  already  adverted)  which  locate,  with  such  abun- 
dance, precision  and  certainty  of  evidence,  the  literal 
Babylon  of  prophecy  "  in  the  land  of  Chaldea,"  we  can 
not  look  upon  the  supposition  of  Dr.  Chalmers  that  Lon- 
don may  be  the  prophetic  Babylon,  as  any  less  fanciful 
and  gratuitous,  any  less  unwarranted  by  Scripture,  than 
the  supposition  of  others  (to  which  he  refers)  that  Rome 
is  that  Babylon.  The  commercial  system  of  England 
maybe  the  typical  ephah.  The  presiding  genius  by  which 
that  system  is,  to  so  large  an  extent,  animated  and  con- 
trolled, may  be  the  woman  first  seen  sitting  in  the  ephah, 
not  evil  in  herself  at  first  (commerce  is  not  evil  in  itself) 
so  far  as  is  revealed  or  can  be  inferred,  but  only  as  after- 
wards corrupted  by  her  companion,  "  wickedness."  The 
ephah  may  "go  forth"  from  England,  may  be  borne  by 
the  swift  wings  of  her  commerce  to  the  "land  of  Shinar  ;" 
but  its  "house"  will  not  be  builded  in  England,  any 
more  than  in  Italy.  Its  final  "base,"  its  last  great 
centre,  is  no  more  likely  to  be  established  on  the  banks 
of  the  Thames  than  upon  that  fanciful  cluster  of  seven 
hills  upon  the  banks  of  the  yellow  Tiber,  which  men  call 
Rome.* 

*  Says  one  of  the  most  learned  and  profound,  but  not  less  accurate 
and  cautious  classical  scholars  of  England;  "The  seven  A «7/s  which  orig- 
inally gave  the  well-known  designation  to  Rome,  were  Palatium,  Yelia, 
Cermalus,  Cirlius,  Fagutal,  Oppuis,  Cispius.  [So  Niebuhr.]  The  three 
first  of  these  belonged  to  the  Palatine,  the  two  next  to  the  Coelian,  and 
the  other  two  to  the  Esquiline ;  being  thus,  in  fact,  so  many  ascents,  and 


52  SY3IB0LIC    BABYLON. 

"We  can  not  doubt  that  the  present  commercial  system  of 
En'^dand  presents  a  more  remarkable  type  of  what  will  be 
the  commercial  system  of  Babylon  at  the  period  designated 
in  the  eighteenth  of  the  Revelation,  than  is,  or  has  ever  been, 
presented  by  any  other  nation.  Many  things  look  strongly 
in  this  direction.  England  and  the  commercial  system  of 
England  are  interchangeable  terms.  The  English  gov- 
ernment is  the  mere  creature  of  her  commercial  system, 
and  but  reflects  its  spirit  and  enacts  its  will.  It  is  the 
power  behind  her  throne.  She,  the  pretending,  or,  if  you 
please,  the  actual,  mother  of  Protestantism,  has  not  only 
established  upon  munificent  foundations  Roman  Catholic 
universities  (as  witness  her  Maynooth  grant)  and  educated 
Roman  Catholic  priests,  but,  for  the  sake  of  her  com- 
merce, has  legalized  the  support  of  eastern  idolatries,  and 
ministered  in  their  temples  ;  paid  tribute  to  the  obscene 
rites  of  Juggernaut ;  acknowledged  Mohammedanism ; 
presided  over  the  priesthood  of  Buddha  ;  and  forced  open 
the  ports  of  the  most  populous  nation  of  the  earth  to  her 
baleful  opium  trade,  surrounding,  to  this  end,  with  all- 
powerful   safeguards,  the  most  gigantic  commercial   mo- 

not  distinct  hills.  The  name  of  Septicollis  [seven-hilled]  having  been 
applied  to  Rome  in  its  early  form,  was  retained  long  after  it  ceased  to 
be  applicable  in  its  original  connection.  After  Rome  had  extended,  it 
was  supposed  by  some  to  relate  to  seven  distinct  hills ;  and  thus  the 
itumber  was  made  to  correspond  by  counting  the  Palatine,  Capitoline, 
Quirinal,  Esquiline,  Ca^lian,  Aventine,  and  the  trans-Tiberine  Janicu- 
lum.  n  this  arrangement  the  Viminal  (which  lies  between  the  Quiri- 
nal and  the  Esquiline)  was  omitted,  in  order  not  to  exceed  the  number ; 
in  another  arrangement,  Janiculum ,  as  being  on  the  right  side  of  the 
Tiber,  was  excluded,  and  the  Yiminal  reckoned :  the  seven  hills  were 
thus  arbitrarily  restricted  to  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  although  the  hill 
on  the  other  side  is  the  highest  of  the  whole.  In  the  days  of  Augustus 
and  his  successors,  a  large  part  of  Rome  had  extended  far  beyond  the 
hills  and  rhe  intervening  hollows,  into  the  flat  plain  of  the  Campus 
Martius,  which  is  the  site  of  the  greater  part  of  the  modern  city  of  the 
popes."  Tregelles'  Daniel,  pp.  ot,  o2.  The  "  seven  mountains  upon 
which  the  woman  sittcth  "  (Rev.  xvii.  9.)  and  the  "  seven  heads  "  of  the 
scarlet  beast  (Rev.  xvii.  3.)  can  not,  therefore,  be  said,  as  so  many  have 
loosely  fancied,  to  be  the  seven  hills  of  Rome. 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLOX.  53 

nopoly  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Indeed,  as  if  actually  to 
verify  the  vision  of  the  ephali,  and  to  "  build  an  house"  for 
it,  she  has  sent  out,  under  a  three  years'  commission, 
Colonel  Chesney,  accompanied  by  a  most  competent  and 
intelligent  staff,  gentlemen  of  high  commercial  and  scien- 
tific attainments,  to  explore,  survey,  and  report  upon,  the 
commercial  capabilities  of  the  Euphratean  country,  the 
land  of  Shinar  itself,  and  they  have  reported  most 
favorably.*  In  running  over  the  record  of  England  in 
this  regard,  and  counting  up  a  few  only  of  the  anti- 
christian  enormities  of  her  infidel  latitudinarianism,  how 
can  we  fail  to  behold  in  her,  at  least  the  beginning  of  the 
fulfilment  of  the  vision  of  the  ephah ;  not  a  type,  merely, 
but,  as  it  were,  the  veritable  features  of  the  symbolic  Bab- 
ylon of  prophecy,  "  the  mother  of  [all]  the  harlots,  and 
[all]  the  abominations  of  the  earth"? 

Wherefore,  in  conclusion,  we  believe  that  the  symbolic 
Babylon  of  prophecy,  the  harlot  of  the  Revelation,  will, 
in  a  distinctive  and  systematic  sense,  be  the  moral  animus, 
the  animating  and  presiding  genius,  of  a  vast,  confede- 
rated system  of  governmental  policy  and  poAver,  co- 
extensive Avith  the  limits,  and  having,  as  the  basis  of  its 
support,  the  commercial  wealth  and  energy,  of  the  pro- 
phetic earth  of  Daniel  and  the  Revelation  ;  that  it  Avill  be 
the  sovereign  and  acknowedged  mistress  of  that  system, 
and,  as  such,  be  glorified,  and  be  a  shining,  but  deceitful 
and  fatal  counterfeit  of  Christ's  millennium ;  that  her 
"  costliness "  and  delicacy  of  life,  administered  unto  by 
all  that  the  concentrated  governmental  power  and  concen- 
trated commercial  wealth  of  the  apostate  prophetic  earth 
can  confer,  and  her  earthly  glory,  in  all  its  myriad  forms 

*  See  Appendix :  Extracts  from  Col.  Chesney's  Report. 


54  SY5IB0LIC     BABYLON. 

and  appliances,  llie  loftiness  of  her  self-conceit  and  the 
meretricious  grandeur  of  her  style,  will  be  beyond  all 
former  compare  ;  that  she  will  be  the  last,  the  proudest, 
the  most  magnificent  triumph  of  Gentile  civilization,  pre- 
luding in  her  pleasant  palaces,  to  the  measure  of  her 
flutes  and  soft  recorders,  the  quickly-speeding  dominion  of 
the  beast,  her  own  fiery  judgment,  and  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  her  queenly  capital ;  that  her  local  and  metropoli- 
tan centre  will  be  "in  the  land  of  Shinar,"  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  in  the  city  and  land  of  Babylon  ;  that 
Antichrist  —  the  "  monster"  of  Daniel,  and  the  "beast" 
of  the  Revelation  —  first  wooing  and  supporting  her  as 
his  mistress,  and  ascending  into  sole  and  supreme  domin- 
ion by  the  aid,  in  part,  of  her  fascinations,  her  enchant- 
ments and  her  sorceries,  will,  in  the  end,  invoking  the 
willing  concurrence  of  the  ten  confederate  kings  of  the 
prophetic  earth,  turn  upon  and  destroy  her,  and  himself 
thenceforward  attract  the  wonder,  and  command  the  hom- 
age, and  exact  the  worship  of  the  rulers  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  prophetic  earth  ("  and  all  that  dwell  upon  the 
earth  shall  worship  him."  —  Rev.  xiii.  8.),  "glorifying 
himself  as  God  until  the  words  of  God  shall  be  fulfilled  ;" 
until  the  Lamb  of  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Messiah 
of  Israel,  shall  come  again,  the  second  time,  not  as  a  des- 
pised carpenter's  son,  born  in  a  manger,  but  as  the  "  stone 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,"  the  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  can 
not  contain,  to  judge  and  to  execute  vengeance  upon  the 
apostate  earth  ;  to  render  his  anger  with  fury  and  his  re- 
buke with  flames  of  fire  ;  to  gather  his  living  saints,  and 
the  departed  saints  of  all  the  lingering  ages,  in  their  risen 
glory   unto  liimself,  to    their   eternal   rest   in   the    heav- 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLON.  55 

enly  Jerusalem ;  to  re-establish,  under  a  more  glori- 
ous theocracy  than  of  old,  restored  and  now  forgiven 
Israel  in  their  earthly  Jerusalem  ;  and  to  send  forth  this 
ransomed  and  chosen  people  upon  the  sublimest,  as  it  will 
be  the  most  successful,  of  earthly  missions  (of  which  all 
present  Christian  missions  are,  or  can  be,  but  the  faint- 
est types,)  namely,  the  redemption,  through  his  blood,  not 
as  now,  of  a  "  little  flock'' — here  a  Jcav  and  a  Gentile 
there  —  but  of  all  the  spared  inhabitants  of  the  earth. 

"  Come,  Lord,  and  tarry  not; 

Bring  the  long-looked-for  day  : 
Oh  !  why  these  years  of  waiting  here, 
These  ages  of  delay ! 

"  Come  in  thy  glorious  might, 
Come  "with  the  iron  rod, 
Scattering  thy  foes  before  thy  face, 
Thou  mighty  Son  of  God. 

"  Come,  and  begin  thy  reign 
Of  everlasting  peace : 
Come,  take  the  kingdom  to  thyself, 
Great  King  of  righteousness." 

Before  dismissing  the  Babylon,  both  literal  and  sym- 
bolic, of  prophecy,  we  invite  the  attention  of  our  readers 
to  a  comparison  of  texts,  taken  from  Isaiah  and  Jere- 
miah, on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  Revelation  on  the 
other,  showing,  if  it  were  possible,  still  more  definitely 
and  conclusively,  that  the  Babylon,  both  literal  and  sym- 
bolic, severally  described  by  them,  is  identical. 

Jer.  li.  13.     '*  0  thou  that  dwell-  Rev.  xvii.  1.      "  Come   hither,    I 

est  upon  many  waters,  thine  end  is  will  show  thee  the  judgment  of  the 

come,  and  the  measure  of  thy  cov-  gi-eat  whore,  that  sitteth  upon  many 

etousness."  waters." 

Jer.  li.  7.    "Babylon  hath  been  a  Rev.  xvii.  4.     "Having  a  golden 

golden  cup  in  the  Lord's  hand,  that  cup  in  her   hand  full   of  abomina- 

made  all  the  earth  drunken."  tions." 

Jer.  i.   7.      "  The   nations   have  Rev.  xvii.  2.      "  The  inhabitants 

drunken  of  her  wine ;  therefore  the  of  the  earth  have  been  made  drunk 

nations  are  mad."  by  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of  her  for- 
nication." 


56 


SYMBOLIC    BABYLON. 


It  is  impossible  to  properly  understand  the  Babylon, 
either  literal  or  symbolic,  of  prophecy,  without  always 
uotiug  the  difference  between  them.  They  are  almost 
alway  confounded.  The  passages  just  cited  refer  ob- 
viously to  symbolic  Babylon,  and  ascribe  to  her  a  univer- 
sality of  influence  Avhich  certainly  exceeds  any  that  she 
has  ever  exercised  or  possessed  in  the  past,  or  possesses 


now. 

Isaiah  xlvii.  5.  "  0  daughter  of 
the  Chaldeans  ....  the  lady  of 
kingdoms." 

Isaiah  xiii.  9.  "  Babylon  the 
glory  of  kingdoms." 

Isaiah  xlvii.  7.  "  Thou  saidst,  I 
shall  be  a  lady  for  ever  .  .  .  There- 
fore hear  now  this,  thou  that  art 
given  to  pleasures,  that  dwellest 
carelessly,  that  sayest  in  thine 
heart,  I  am,  and  none  else  beside 
me;  I  shall  not  sit  as  a  widow, 
neither  shall  I  know  the  loss  of 
children  ;  but  these  two  things  shall 
come  to  thee  in  a  moment,  in  one 
day,  the  loss  of  children,  and  wid- 
owhood." 


Rev.  xviii.  7,  8.  "  How  much 
she  hath  glorified  herself,  and  lived 
deliciously,  so  much  torment  and 
sorrow  give  her ;  for  she  hath  said 
in  her  heart,  I  sit  a  queen,  and  am 
no  widow-,  and  shall  see  no  sorrow. 
Therefore  shall  her  plagues  come 
in  one  day,  death  and  mourning, 
and  famine." 


Jer.  xli.  2.5.    "  I  will  make  thee        Rev.  xviii.  8.    "  She  shall  be  ut- 
terly burned  with  fire." 

Rev.  xviii.  4.  "Come  out  of  her, 
my  people,  that  ye  be  not  parta- 
kers of  her  sins." 


a  burnt  mountain." 
'    Jer.  xli.  45.      "  My  people,  go  ye 
out  of  the  midst  of  her,  and  deliver 
ye   every  man    his   soul   from  the 
fierce  anger  of  the  Lord." 

Jer.  1.  8.  "  Remove  out  of  the 
midst  of  Babylon." 

Jer.  1.  6.  "  Flee  out  of  the  midst 
of  Babylon." 

Jer.  ii.  9.  "  For  her  judgment 
reacheth  unto  heaven." 

Jer,  1.  lo.  "  Take  vengeance 
upon  her ;  as  she  hath  done,  do 
unto  her." 

Jer.  1.  29.  "  Recompense  her  ac- 
cording to  her  work  ;  according  to 
all  she  hath  done,  do  unto  her." 

Isaiah  xxi.  9.  Jer.  li.  8.  "  Bab- 
ylon is  fallen,  is  fallen.  Babylon  is 
s  id('enlv  fallen   and  destroyed." 

Isaiah  xiii.  21.  "  Wild  beasts  of 
the  desert  shall  be  there,  and  their 
houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  crea- 
tures ;  and  owls  shall  dwell  there, 
and  satyrs  {datuoviu  Ixx.)  shall 
dance  there." 


Rev.  xviii.  .5.  "  For  her  sins  have 
reached  unto  heaven." 

Rev.  xviii.  6.  "  Reward  her  even 
as  she  has  rewarded  you,  and  dou- 
ble unto  her  double,  according  to 
her  works  ...  in  the  cup  which 
she  hath  filled,  fill  to  her  double." 

Rev.  xviii.  2.  "Babylon  the  great 
is  fallen,  is  fallen." 

Rev.  xviii.  2.  "  And  is  become 
the  habitation  of  devils,  and  the 
hold  of  every  foul  spirit,  and  a  cage 
of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird"." 


SYMBOLIC      BABYLON.  57 

Jer.  li.  63,  64.    «  And  it  shall  be,  Rev.  xviii.  21.    «'  And   a  miehty 

when  thou   hast  made    an   end   of  angel   took  up   a   stone   like   to   a 

reading  this   book,  that   thou  shalt  great  millstone,  and  cast  it  into  the 

bind  a  stone  to  it,  and   cast  it  into  sea,    saying,     Thus   with    violence 

the  midst   of  the   Euphrates;  and  shall   that   great   city   Babylon   be 

thou  shalt  say,  Thus  shalt  Babylon  thrown  down,  and   shall   be   found 

sink,  and  shall   not   rise   from  the  no  more  at  all." 
evil  that  I  will  bring  upon  her." 

The  passages  last  cited  and  compared,  those  espe- 
cially of  the  eighteenth  of  the  Revelation,  refer  to  the  lit- 
eral Babylon  of  prophecy.  But  John  describes  only  the 
closing  scenes  of  the  present  dispensation,  when  Christ 
will  re-appear,  at  Armageddon,  with  the  armies  of  heaven 
following,  which  event  is  future.  If  the  evidence  thus 
taken  from  these  three  prophets  is  sufficient  to  identify  the 
city  severally  described  by  them,  both  literal  and  sym- 
bolic, as  being,  under  each  comparison,  one  and  the 
same  city  —  and  who  can  doubt  it  without  rejecting  all 
rules  of  evidence  ?  —  then  must  literal  Babylon  first  be 
restored,  and  symbolic  Babylon  still  await  the  full  con- 
summation of  her  predicted  reign. 


CHAPTER    ly. 


THE  ANTICHRIST  OF  PROPHECY. 

THE    RESTORATIOX     OF     THE     JEWS    IX   UXBELIEF,    AND    THEIR 
SUBSEQUENT   PERSECUTION   BY  ANTICHRIST. 

Antichrist  is  not  anticliristianism,  an  abstraction,  an 
imembodied  principle,  an  impersonal  idea. 

Antichrist  is  the  "  beast  "  of  the  Revelation  ;  the  "  lit- 
tle horn  "  of,  respectively,  the  seventh  and  eleventh  chap- 
ters of  Daniel ;  the  "  king  of  fierce  countenance  "  of  the 
eighth  and  "  prince  that  shall  come  "of  the  ninth  of  Dan- 
iel;  the  "king  of  Assyria"  of  the  tenth,  and  "king  of 
Babylon"  and  "Lucifer"  of  the  fourteenth  of  Isaiah; 
the  "  man  of  sin"  and  "  son  of  perdition"  of  the  second 
chapter  of  the  second  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.  But 
he  is  more  conspicuously  known  and  portrayed  than,  per- 
haps, under  any  other  title,  as  the  "  beast "  of  the  Reve- 
lation. These,  with  their  accompanying  descriptions  and 
portraitures,  are  separate  titles  and  accounts  of  one  and 
the  same  person.  That  person  is  the  last  great  monarch 
of  the  Gentiles,  the  Antichrist  of  prophecy.  He  is  nOt 
many  persons,  or  a  succession  of  persons  (as,  for  in- 
stance, the  Popes  of  Rome),  but  one  person,  having 
an  individuality  which  is  all  his  own,  which  no  other  nor 
any  number  of  other  persons  has  ever  in  the  least  shared, 
or  ever  can  share,  however  remarkably  they  may,  in  some 


.  THE    ANTICHRIST   OF   rROPHECT.  59 

or  in  many  respects,  have  answered  to  the  prophetic  account 
of  him,  have  typified  his  character,  or  foreshadowed  his 
coming  and  his  career.  Antichrist,  the  Antichrist,  is  no 
more  to  be  regarded  in  any  merely  Protean,  or  generic 
and  representative,  or  speculative  and  mystical  and  spirit- 
ualized, sense,  than  is  He,  against  whom  he  will  finally 
gather  the  chosen  strength  of  the  armies  of  the  ten  con- 
federated kings  of  the  prophetic  earth  before  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  Himself  so  to  be  regarded.  The  antithesis, 
Christ  and  Antichrist,  is  a  perfect  one,  as  perfect  in  its 
opposing  personalities,  as  in  its  opposing  moral  qualities. 
Thus,  for  example  : 

CHRIST.  ANTICHRIST. 

John  iii.    31.      "  Comes     from  Rev.  xi.  7.  "Comes  from  below." 
above." 

John  V.  43.      "  Comes  in  his  Fa-  John  v.  43.  "Comes  in  his  own." 
ther's  name." 

Phil.  ii.   8.      "  Humbled  himself  2.  Thess.  ii.  4.     "  Exalts  himself 

and  became  obedient."  above  all." 

Is.  liii.  3.     "  Was    despised   and  Rev.  xiii.  3,  4.     "  All   the   world 

rejected     and   we     esteemed     him  wonder  after  the  beast,  saying,  who 

not."  is  like  imto  him  ?" 

John  vi.  38.     "  Comes  to  do  his  Daniel  xi.  31.     "  Does  according 

Father's  will."  to  his  own." 

John  xvii.  4.     "  Glorifies  God  on  Rev.   xiii.   6.     "  Blasphemes  the 

earth."  name  of  God." 

Johnx.  14,  lo.  "The  good  Shep-  Zech.   xi.   16,   17.       "The    evil 

herd  that    giveth  his   life   for  the  shepherd  or  idol  shepherd  who  shall 

sheep."  tear  the  flesh." 

Phil.  ii.  9,  10.      "  God  highly  ex-  Is.  xiv.  14,  15.      "  Exalteth  him- 

alts  him,   and   gives   him   a  name  self  above  the  heights  of  the  douds, 

above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  yet  is  brought  down  to  hell." 
of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow." 

Matt.  xxiv.  30.      "  Shall  be  seen  Is.  xiv.  16.     "  They  that  see  thee 

coming  in  the   clouds   with   power  shall  narrowly  look  upon  thee,  say- 

and  o-reat  f^lory."  ing,  Is  this  the  man   that  made  the 

°         °  earth   to  tremble,   that   did    shake 

the  kingdoms  ?  " 

Rev.  xi.   15.      "Shall  reign  for  Dan.  vii.  26.      "  They  shall  take 

ever  and  ever."  away  his  dominion  to  consume  and 

destroy  it  to  the  end." 

Heb.  i.   2.      "  The  heir   of   all  2  Thess.  ii.  3.    "  The  son  of  per- 

things."  dition." 


60  THE   ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY. 

Althougli  we  might  dwell,  at  length,  upon  the  texts 
thus  cited  and  compared,  as  furnishing  clear  and  substan- 
tial criteria,  by  which  to  recognize  and  identify  Antichrist 
when  he  shall  enter  upon  his  career,  and  by  which  to  de- 
termine many  of  his  principal  characteristics,  and  many 
of  the  principal  incidents  of  his  reign,  yet  our  only  ob- 
ject now  is  to  refer  to  them,  as  establishing,  beyond  a 
question,  his  personality.  If  on  the  other  hand,  they 
afford  no  evidence  of  his  personality,  then  do  not  the 
contrasted  texts,  on  the  other,  afford  any  evidence  of 
the  personality  of  Christ.  If  we  claim  that  the  one  class 
of  texts  fail  to  prove  the  personality  of  Antichrist,  of  one 
particular  Antichrist,  as  contradistinguished  from  and 
preeminent  over  all  types  and  forerunners  which  shall 
have  preceded  him,  then,  upon  the  same  principles  of 
logic  and  evidence  by  which  this  conclusion  is  reached, 
must  the  other  class  of  texts  equally  fail  to  prove  the 
personality  of  Christ.  Deny  that  the  prophets.  Old  and 
New  Testament  alike,  prove  the  existence  of  the  partic- 
ular, personal  and  final  Antichrist,  or  that  they  describe 
the  principal  events  of  his  career,  and  it  is  impossible,  in 
all  logical  fairness,  not  to  deny,  also,  that  the  prophets 
and  evangelists  prove  the  existence  of  the  particular 
and  personal  Christ  (as  distinguished,  if  you  please, 
from  the  "  false  Christs,"  which  he  warned  his  disciples 
would  come  in  his  name),  and  that  they  record  the  prin- 
cipal acts  of  his  life  and  the  principal  events  of  his  career. 

True,  the  prophet  who  portrays  the  beast  of  the  Reve- 
lation elsewhere  informs  us  that  there  are  many  anti- 
christs (1  John  ii.  18),  indeed,  that  whosoever  denies  that 
Christ  IS  to  come  (fp/oue»ov  in  the  original,  and  venturus 
in  the  Vulgate)  in   the  flesh  is   antichrist ;   but  it  will  be 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY.  61 

observed  that  he  does  not,  in  his  epistle,  as  in  the  Revela- 
tion, call  these  antichrists  by  name,  or  give  us  any  partic- 
ular account  of  them,  or  attach  any  specific  title  to  them. 
It  is  of  antichristianism,  of  the  "  spirit  of  antichrist," 
of  which  the  prophet,  professedly,  discourses  in  his  epistle, 
but  it  is  of  THE  Antichrist  that  he  discourses,  and  whose 
portraiture  he  draws,  in  the  Revelation  ;  not  of  his  types 
and  forerunners  of  any  or  of  all  ages,  of  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes,  or  Mohammed,  or  the  Napoleons,  or  either  of  them, 
or  any  one  Pope,  or  any  succession  of  Popes,  however 
signally  they  may  have  foreshadowed  his  reign,  or  con- 
tributed to  cast  up  a  highway  for  him  ;  but  of  the  literal 
Antichrist  of  the  very  last  days,  of,  so  to  speak,  the  very 
closing  hours  of  the  Gentile  dispensation ;  of  tlie^  great 
final  monarch  of  the  prophetic  earth,  and  of  him  alone. 
The  prophet  of  the  Revelation  means,  as  Daniel,  the  great 
apocalyptic  revelator  of  the  Old  Testament,  meant  before 
him,  that  there  should  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  personal 
identity,  or  the  lofty  preeminence  in  evil,  of  this  last 
Antichrist,  or  as  to  the  distinctive  and  expressly  revealed 
characteristics  of  his  reign. 

To  further  illustrate  the  personal  identity  of  this  literal 
and  final  Antichrist,  but,  more  especially,  to  identify  the 
symbols  enumerated  at  the  commencement  of  this  chap- 
ter, as  referring,  one  and  all,  to  one  and  the  same  per- 
son, we  will  compare  the  accounts  given  of  him  under 
these  symbols  in  different  chapters  of  Daniel  and  the 
Revelation,  premising  only  that  we  can  but  anticipate  the 
surprise  of  the  reader  (once  having  made  himself  familiar 
with  the  portraiture  of  Antichrist  in  the  Revelation) 
to  find  how  easily  he  will  be  able  to  follow  him,  un- 
der every  change   of  symbol,    under  every  altered  title, 


62 


THE   ANTICHRIST    OF    PKOPHECY. 


through,  not  the  pages  of  Daniel  only,  but  the  entire 
range  of  prophetic  Scripture,  never,  for  a  moment  losing 
sight  of  him,  or  erring  as  to  his  personal  identity  in  all 
its  strict  and  proper  fulness.     Thus  ; 


AS   THE   BEAST. 


AS   THE   LITTLE   HORN. 


Rev.  xiii.  6.       "  He  opens  his  Dan.  vii.  25.     "  He  speaks  great 

mouth  in  blasphemy  against  God,  words  against  the  Most  High." 
to   blaspheme   his   name,   and   his 
tabernacle,  and  them   that  dwell  in 
heaven." 

Rev.  xiii.   7.      "  He   makes   war  Dan.  vii.  21 .      "  He   mfakes   war 

with    the    saints     and     overcomes  with  the  saints  and  prevails." 
them." 

Rev.   xiii.   5.      "  Authority   was  Dan.  vii.  25.      •'  The   saints   are 

given     unto     him     forty   and   two  given    into    his    hand  until   time, 

months,"  i.  e.  1260  days.  times  and   the   dividing  of   time," 

i.  e.  1250  days. 

A  strong  presumption   certainly  that  the  beast  of  the 

thirteenth   of  the  Revelation  and  the   little  horn  of  the 

seventh  of  Daniel  are  identical,  symbols  of  one  and  the 
same  person.     Again  ; 


AS   THE   LITTLE   HORN. 


AS   THE    SECOND   LITTLE   HORN. 


Dan.  vii.  25.       "  Speaks    great  Dan.  xi.  26.      "  Speaks  marvel- 
words  against  the  Most  High."  lous    things    against    the    God   of 

gods." 

Dan.  vii.  22.     "  Shall  prevail  un-  Dan.  xi.  36.      Shall   prosper   till 

til  the  Ancient  of  days   comes,  and  the  indignation  [against  Israel  and 

judgment  is  given   to  the  saints  of  Jerusalem]  be  accomplished," 
the  Most  High,  and  the  time  comes 
that  the  saints   possess  the   king- 
dom." 

Thus  tlie  symbols  of  the  seventh  and  eleventh  of  Dan- 
iel are  as  clearly  identical  as  those  of  the  seventh  of  Dan- 
iel and  the  thirteenth  of  the  Revelation.     Again  ; 


AS  THE  SECOND  LITTLE   HORN. 

Dan.  xi.  41.  "  He  shall  enter 
also  into  the  glorious  land." 

Dan.  xi.  40.  "  Enters  the  glo- 
rious land  at  the  time  of  the  end." 

Dan.  xi.  36.  "  He  shall  prosper 
till  the  indignation  [against  Israel 
and  Jerusalem]  be  accomplished." 


AS    THE    KING    OF    FIEBCE     COUN- 
TENANCE. 

Dan.  viii.  9.  "  He  waxes  great 
towards  the  pleasant  land." 

Dan.  viii.  17.  "  At  the  time  of 
the  end  shall  be  the  vision." 

Dan.  viii.  19.  "  He  shall  pros- 
per in  the  last  end  of  the  indigna- 
tion" [against  Israel  and  Jerusa- 
lem]. 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY.  63 

Thus  the  identity  of  the  king  of  fierce  countenance  of 
the  eighth  and  the  little  horn  of  the  eleventh  of  Daniel 
can  not  be  denied,  as  it  appears  to  us,  without,  at  the 
same  time,  denying  the  identity  of  the  symbols  previously 
considered,  and  their  identity  one  and  all  with  that  of  the 
eighth  of  Daniel.     Finally  ; 

THE  KING  OF  FIEKCE   COUN-  THE  PRINCE  THAT  SHALL  COME. 

TENANCE. 

Dan.  viii.  11.  "Takes  away  the  Dan.  ix.  27.  "  Causes  the  sacri- 
daily  sacrifice."  fice  and  obhition  to  cease." 

Dan.  viii.  19.  "Shall  prosper  Dan.  ix.  27.  "Till  that  deter- 
in  the  last  end  of  the  indignation."    mined  is  poured  upon  the  desola- 

tor." 

Thus  are  the  beast  of  the  thirteenth  of  the  Revelation, 
the  little  horn  of  the  seventh,  the  little  horn  of  the 
eleventh,  the  king  of  fierce  countenance  of  the  eighth, 
and  the  prince  that  shall  come  of  the  ninth,  of  Daniel, 
identical  symbols,  representative  of  the  literal  and  final 
Antichrist  of  prophecy.  We  say  final^  because  it  will  bef 
observed  that,  with  a  single  exception,  the  last  two  con- 
trasted texts  in  each  of  the  foregoing  sets  of  compari- 
sons, establish  his  fall  as  being  "  when  the  indignation 
[against  Israel  and  Jerusalem]  shall  be  accomplished," 
which,  certainly,  as  the  observation  of  the  most  indiifer- 
ent  must  convince  them,  has  not  been  accomplished  as 
yet,  and  as  being  "  at  the  time  of  the  end,"  which  has 
certainly  not  yet  arrived. 

The  evidence  by  which  the  identity  of  the  symbols, 
thus  variously  and  concurrently  representing  Antichrist 
in  prophetic  Scripture  is  clearly  established,  might  be 
multiplied  indefinitely.  We  add  a  single  instance  more. 
"  The  prince  that  shall  come"  of  the  ninth  of  Daniel, 
"  shall  prosper  until  the  consummation,  and  that  deter- 
mined is   poured    upon    the    desolator."    (v.  27.)      The 


g4  THE   ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY. 

"kino-  of  Assyria "  of  the  tenth  of  Isaiah  shall  pros- 
per "  till  the  Lord  hath  performed  his  whole  work 
upon  Mount  Zion,  and  on  Jerusalem."  The  "  king 
of  Assyria"  is,  therefore,  still  another  title  of  the  An- 
tichrist. 

In  the  fourteenth  of  Isaiah  he  is  again  called  the  Assy- 
rian, "  The  Lord  of  hosts  hath  sworn,  saying.  Surely  as 
I  have  thought,  so  shall  it  come  to  pass  ;  and  as  I  have 
purposed,  so  shall  it  stand  :  That  I  will  break  the  Assy- 
rian in  my  land,  and  upon  my  mountains  tread  him  under 
foot ;  THEN  shall  his  yoke  depart  from  off  them  and  his 
burden  from  off  their  shoulders" — i.  e.  the  shoulders  of 
Israel ;  a  sure  proof  of  their  restoration  in  unbelief. 

In  the  same  chapter  he  is  also  called  "  the  king  of 
Babylon"  and  "  Lucifer,"  from  his  blasphemous  assump- 
tion, perhaps,  of  the  character  of  Christ  as  the  bright 
and  morning  star. 

We  have  thus  considered  some  of  the  evidences  of  the 
personality  of  the  literal  and  final  Antichrist  of  prophecy, 
and  of  the  identity  of  not  a  few  of  the  various  symbols  by 
which  he  is  represented  ;  which  evidences  contain,  in  most 
instances,  direct  proof,  and,  in  all,  conclusive  implica- 
tions, of  the  futurity  of  his  reign. 

It  remains  to  consider,  more  particularly  and  more  by 
themselves,  still  other  proofs  of  the  futurity  of  the  reign 
of  Antichrist,  though  nothing,  probably,  could  establish 
that  fact  more  completely  than  the  plain  declarations  of 
prophetic  Scripture  already  considered,  which  place  the 
period  of  his  reign  "at  the  time  of  the  end"  ;  when  "  the 
indignation  [against  Israel  and  Jerusalem]  shall  be  ac- 
complished" ;  "when  the  Lord  hath  performed  his  whole 
work  upon  Mount  Zion,   and  on  Jerusalem";  in  "the 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPIIFXY.  65 

last  end  of  the  indignation" — and  "when  the  transgres- 
sors are  come  to  the  full,"  i.  e.  when  their  full  number 
is  accomplished,  which  certainly  is  not  as  yet.  These 
plain  declarations  are  perfectly  definite  and  conclusive, 
and  yet  they  are  but  a  tithe  of  the  scriptural  evidence 
of  the  futurity  of  Antichrist's  reign,  nor  do  we  propose, 
in  proceeding  to  the  consideration  of  further  proof  on 
this  point,  to  allude  to  more  than  a  tithe  of  that  which 
remains. 

First,  Antichrist  is  described  as  "  exalting  himself 
above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped," 
2  Thess.  ii.  4 ;  as  "  planting  the  tabernacles  of  his 
palace  between  the  seas  [the  Dead  and  Mediterranean] 
in  the  glorious  holy  mountain,"  Daniel  xi.  45 ;  as 
sitting  in  the  temple  of  God,  shewing  himself  that  he  is 
Godr—2  Thess.  ii.  4. 

Now  "  the  temple  of  God"  is  an  expression  applied 
in  Scripture  to  three  things,  and  three  only  ;  1st.  To 
the  actual  temple  at  Jerusalem,  as  in  1  Sam.  i.  9.  2d. 
To  the  bodies  of  individual  saints,  as  in  1  Cor.  vi.  19. 
3d.  To  the  Church  of  God,  as  in  1  Cor.  iii.  17. 
It  is  manifestly  impossible  that  Antichrist  could  sit 
in  any  but  the  first  of  these  three,  and  the  co-inciding  ex- 
pression of  Daniel,  "  the  glorious  holy  mountain,"  fixes 
the  locality  of  that  temple,  not,  as  some  would  have  it,  at 
Rome,  but  in  the  holy  city,  at  Jerusalem  and  there 
only. 

We    have    seen    that    the    symbols    of  Antichrist    in 

Daniel  and  the    symbol  of  Antichrist  in  the  Revelation 

are  identical,  also  that  the  periods  at  which  these  prophets 

severally    predicted  his  reign,   are  identical.     Their   de- 

9 


^6  THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPHECY. 

scriptions  in  this  regard  are  perfectly  precise  and  harmo- 
nious. 

But  the  Apocalypse  was  written  by  John  twenty  years 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  A.  D. 
71,  and  was  a  revelation,  as  the  term  itself  implies,  not 
of  the  past^  but  of  the  future.  But  there  has  been  no 
temple  at  Jerusalem  thus  to  "  sit  in"  and  to  pollute,  from 
the  time  of  its  destruction  by  Titus  even  until  now. 
John,  therefore  (and  not  less  Daniel),  in  prophetically  re- 
cording the  desecration  of  the  Jewish  temple  by  Anti- 
christ, must  have  had  reference  to  a  period  which  is 
clearly  and  unquestionably /t^^wre. 

And  here,  in  passing,  we  pause  for  a  moment,  to  show, 
more  specifically,  that  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  could  not, 
as  many  have  supposed,  have  been  the  Antichrist  either 
of  Daniel  or  the  Revelation  (although  Daniel,  in  his 
eleventh  chapter,  describes  Antiochus  at  length  as  pol- 
luting the  Jewish  temple  and  worship),  for  he  died  more 
than  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  before  Christ.  He  can 
not,  therefore,  be  the  Antichrist  of  John,  and  if  not  of 
John  certainly  not  of  Daniel,  for  we  have  seen  that  they 
are  identical.  Antiochus  is,  perhaps,  the  most  remarka- 
ble of  all  the  types  of  Antichrist,  certainly  in  many  re- 
spects, lie  overrun  the  holy  city  and  the  holy  land. 
lie  "took  away  the  daily  sacrifice."  He  profaned  the 
temple.  But  he  did  not  live  "  at  the  time  of  the  end," 
"  in  the  last  end  of  the  indignation  ,"  "  when  the  trans- 
gressors were  come  to  the  full,"  when  the  Lord  had 
"  performed  his  whole  work  upon  Mount  Zion,  and  on 
Jerusalem."  He  did  not  "  stand  up  against  the  Prince 
of  princes."  He  was  not  "broken  without  hand,"  i.  e.  by 
special  and  direct  divine  interposition.  He  did  not  reign  in 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PKOrilECY.  G7 

undivided  sovereignty  over  the  ten  prophetic  realms  of  the 
eastern  and  western  Roman  earth,  nor  did  any  ten  confed- 
erated kings  therein  flee  to  him,  to  seek,  under  his  more 
iron  rule,  a  refuge  from  the  popular  commotions  that  men- 
aced their  thrones.  The  age  of  democracy,  of  the  struggle 
for  independence  of  the  clay,  as  against  the  iron,  was  com- 
paratively unknown  and  undeveloped  then.  For  the  same 
reason  Mohammed  can  not  have  been  Antichrist,  nor  can 
any  Pope,  nor  any  number  or  succession  of  Popes.  There 
is,  moreover,  no  mountain  in  Rome,  much  less  the  "  glo- 
rious holy  mountain "  of  which  Daniel  speaks,  and  to 
which  our  Saviour  alludes,  as  he  does  in  the  twenty-fourth 
of  Matthew,  as  the  seat  of  the  "  Holy  Place."  There 
are  not  (as  we  have  shown)  seven  distinct  hills  even 
there.  There  is  no  Temple  of  God  there,  capable  of  be- 
ing thus  desecrated  and  profaned,  unless  it  be  claimed  that 
it  is  St.  Peter's,  which,  surely,  with  its  satanic  record,  is 
any  thing,  and  has  ever  been  any  thing,  rather  than  "  the 
Holy  Place."  Certainly  Bishop  Colenso  could  not,  by 
any  possible  ingenuity  of  his  "  verifying  faculty,"  or  in 
any  possible  consistency  with  his  neologic  conceits,  so 
contract  the  range  of  his  Anglican  latitudinarianism,  as  to 
grant  to  the  Pope  so  full  and  exclusive  a  dispensation  as 
this.  Not  thus  does  he  minister  at  the  altars  of  symbolic 
Babylon  ! 

Again  ;  we  are  told  by  Daniel  that  the  period  of  Anti- 
christ's reign  will  be  a  season  of  unexampled  tribula- 
tion. He  says,  expressly,  that  this  tribulation  will  be 
"  at  the  time  of  the  end,"  and  that  it  will  be  connected 
immediately  with  the  reign  of  Antichrist. 

'•'•  And  he  [Antichrist]  shall  plant  the  tabernacles  of 
his  palace  between  the  seas  in  the  glorious  holy  mountain 


68  THE    A^'TICHEIST    OF    PROPHECY. 

....  and  at  that  time  there  shall  be  a  time  of  trouble, 
such  as  never  was  since  there  was  a  nation,  .  .  .  and  at 
this  time  thy  people  [the  House  of  Israel]  shall  be  deliv- 
ered, every  one  that  shall  be  found  written  in  the  book." 
— Daniel  xi.  45  ;  xii.  1. 

John,  in  the  Revelation,  refers  distinctly  to  the  severity 
of  this  tribulation,  ideniifying  it  plainly  Avith  the  reign 
of  Antichrist. 

"  And  it  was  given  unto  him  [the  beast]  to  make  Avar 
with  the  saints,  and  to  overcome  them  ....  and  he 
causeth  all,  the  small  and  the  great,  and  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  and  the  free  and  the  bond,  to  receive  a  mark  on 
their  right  hand,  or  on  their  forehead  :  [and]  that  no  one 
be  able  to  buy  or  to  sell,  save  he  that  hath  the  mark,  the 

name  of  the  beast,  or  the  number  of  his  name 

and  all  that  dwell  upon  the  earth  shall  Avorship  him, 
Avhose  names  are  not  written  in  the  book  of  life  of  the 
Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  Avorld." — Revela- 
tion xiii. 

So  also  our  Saviour  foretold  this  season  of  tribulation 
to  his  disciples,  connecting  it  immediately  Avith  the  reign 
of  Antichrist,  and  his  OAvn  second  appearing. 

"  When  ye  therefore  shall  see  the  abomination  of  deso- 
lation, spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  prophet,  stand  in  the  holy 

place there  shall  be  great  tribulation,  such   as 

Avas  not  since  the  beginning  of  the  Avorld  to  this  time,  no, 
nor  ever  shall  be Immediately  after  the  tribula- 
tion of  those  days  shall  the  sun  be  darkened,  and  the 
moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall 
from  heaven,  and  the  poA\^ers  of  the  heavens  shall  be 
shaken  ;  and  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of 
man  in  heaven,   and  then    shall    all    the    tribes    of   the 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPHECY.  69 

earth  mourn,  and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  coming 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  ^vith  power  and  great  glory." — 
Matthew  xxiv. 

Now  if  this  season  of  unprecedented  and  unexampled 
tribulation  has  already  past,  then  is  "  the  time  of  the 
end"  also  past;  then,  also,  has  Antichrist  "planted  the 
tabernacles  of  his  palace  between  the  seas  in  the  glorious 
holy  mountain  "  in  the  past ;  then  has  the  full  number  of 
transgressors  been  accomplished  in  the  past ;  then  has 
the  indignation  against  Israel  and  Jerusalem  ceased,  and 
the  House  of  Israel  been  delivered,  in  the  past ;  then  has 
the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man,  which  our  Saviour  foretold, 
(^not  reverted  to)  appeared  in  heaven  in  the  past ;  then  has 
the  Son  of  man  come  again  in  his  own  glory,  and  in  his 
Father's  glory,  and  in  the  glory  of  the  holy  angels,  and 
the  righteous  living  been  transformed,  and  the  sainted 
dead  been  raised  from  their  graves,  in  the  past,  to  meet 
him  at  his  coming ;  then  are  we  living  in  the  millen- 
nium now.  Alas,  how  many  aching  hearts,  and  weary 
heads,  and  weeping  eyes,  how  many  righteous  and 
believing  souls,  will  attest  the  contrary  !  If,  therefore, 
we  are  not  living  in  the  millennium  now,  and  Anti- 
christ is  not  reigning  now,  as  we  know  from  indu- 
bitable criteria  (already  referred  to)  that  he  is  not,  then 
must  his  reign,  clearly  and  unquestionably,  hefuture. 

Once  more  ;  not  only  is  the  empire  of  Antichrist  (em- 
bracing the  territory  comprised  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  four  great  world  powers,  as  already  considered) 
to  be  supernaturally  destroyed  "  at  the  time  of  the 
end,"  and  "  in  the  days  of  these  kings "  (the  ten 
kings  of  the  prophetic  earth,  Daniel  ii.  44)  by  the 
"  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain,  without  hands,"  but  An- 


70  THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPHECY. 

tichrist  is,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  supernaturaUy  destroyed 
himself.     We  cite  the  following  Scripture  in  proof. 

"  lie  shall  also  stand  up  against  the  Prince  of  princes, 
but  he  shall  be  destroyed  without  hand,''  (Daniel  viii.  25) 
i.  e.,  by  direct  divine  interposition,  which  interposition,  it 
is  worthy  of  notice,  will  be  attended  with  various  miracu- 
lous signs  and  tokens,  such  as  are  described  by  our 
Saviour, — the  darkening  of  the  sun,  the  witholding  of  the 
lisht  of  the  moon,  the  fallin"^  of  the  stars  from  heaven, 
and  the  shaking  of  its  powers. 

"  These  [the  ten  kings  of  the  prophetic  earth  and  the 
beast]  shall  make  war  upon  the  Lamb  and  the  Lamb 
shall  overcome  them,  for  he  is  the  Lord  of  lords  and  the 
King  of  kings." — Revelation  xvii.  12,  14. 

"  And  I  saw  the  beast  and  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and 
his  armies,  gathered  together  to  make  war  upon  him  that 
sat  on  the  horse,  and  with  his  army  [the  legions  of  heaven.] 
And  the  beast  was  taken,  and  he  who  was  with  him,  the 
false  prophet,  that  wrought  miracles  in  his  presence,  with 
which  he  deceived  those  that  received  the  mark  of  the 
beast,  and  those  that  worship  his  image.  [What  false 
prophet  thus  ministers,  or  has  ever  thus  ministered,  to  the 
Pope  of  Rome?)  These  both  were  cast  alive  into  the 
lake  of  fire  which  burneth  with  brimstone.  And  the  rest 
were  killed  with  the  sword  of  him  that  sat  upon  the 
horse,  which  sword  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth  ;  and  all 
the  fowls  were  filled  with  their  flesh." — Rev.  xix.  19 — 21. 

So  also  the  apostle  Paul  expressly  couples  the  super- 
natural destruction  of  Antichrist  with  Christ's  second 
coming. 

"  Tlie  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition  .  .  that  wicked 
one  whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  breath  of  his 


THE   ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY.  71 

spirit,  and  destroy  with  the  brightness  of  his  coming." — 
2  Thes.  ii.  3,  8. 

So  also  Isaiah ; 

"  And  he  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  his 
mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall  he  slay  the 
wicked  one." — xi.  4. 

In  the  light  of  this  Scripture,  it  is  enough  simply  to 
ask  what  sovereign  of  the  entire  (eastern  and  western) 
prophetic  earth,  holding  sway  over  its  ten  allied  realms 
and  ten  concurring  kings,  has  ever  been  thus  supernatu- 
rally  destroyed  in  the  past?  If  no  one,  then  must  the 
reign  of  Antichrist  be,  most  clearly  and  unquestionably, 
future. 

We  have  thus  considered  the  personality  of  Antichrist ; 
the  identity  of  the  symhols" which  represent  him ;  the  sphere^ 
in  its  precise  boundaries,  and  the  futurity^  in  its  appointed 
period,  of  his  reign.  Let  us  now  consider,  more  particu- 
larly, the  prophetic  record  of  his  reign. 

Its  most  distinguishing  feature  will  be  its  connection  with 
Israel  and  Jerusalem.  In  this  connection,  it  would  almost 
appear  as  if  Antichrist  were  to  be  raised  up  purposely  to 
be  the  judicial,  final  and  most  consuming  scourge  of 
God's  "  chosen  people."  His  record,  in  this  regard,  is  to 
be  found,  chiefly,  in  the  last  six  chapters  of  Daniel.  The 
first  six  chapters  give  us  a  picture  of  the  four  great  Gen- 
tile empires,  and  the  course  of  Gentile  civilization  from 
its  commencement  to  its  close  ;  the  last  six  a  picture  of 
Israel  and  Jerusalem  as  affected  by  Gentile  rule  and  the 
reign  of  Antichrist.  The  first  six  revolve  around  Bab- 
ylon as  their  centre  ;  the  last  six  around  Jerusalem.  The 
first  six  are  written  in  the  native  tongue  of  Babylon,  the 
Chaldee  ;  the  last  six  in  the  native  tongue  of  Israel,  the 


72  THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPHECY. 

Hebrew.  The  first  six  give  iis,  in  outline,  the  career  of 
the  great  Gentile  kings  who  precede  Antichrist ;  the  last 
six  give  us,  in  detail,  the  principal  acts  of  Antichrist  as 
connected  with  Israel  and  Jerusalem.  It  is  thus,  and  thus 
only,  that  it  is  possible  to  view  Antichrist  in  proper  bold- 
ness of  relief.  Israel  and  Jerusalem,  far  more  than  many 
would  at  first  suppose,  constitute  the  great  key-note  of  hu- 
man history,  and  Antichrist  will,  on  the  one  hand,  be 
their  last,  their  most  vengeful,  and,  for  a  season,  their 
most  successful  foe,  as  he  will  be,  on  the  other,  the  last 
great  idol  of  Gentile  civilization,  the  representative  of 
its  grandest  epoch,  "wondered  after  and  worshipped  by 
all."  But  the  Jews  are  to  be  "  trodden  under  foot  of  the 
Gentiles  "  to  the  very  end. 

Contemporaneously  with  his  reign,  the  Jews  will  be  a 
restored,  but  still  unforgiven  and  unbelieving  nation,  with 
a  rebuilded  temple  and  reinstituted  worship.  Their 
worldly  resources  and  worldly  pride  will  be  beyond  all 
precedent  or  comparison.  This  is  the  special  burden  of 
the  second  chapter  of  Isaiah.  "  Replenished  from  the  East, 
their  land  will  be  full  of  silver  and  gold,  neither  is  there 
any  end  of  their  treasures  ;  their  land  is  also  full  of 
horses,  neither  is  there  any  end  of  their  chariots  ;  their 
land  is  also  full  of  idols."— Isaiah  ii.  6—8.  Thus,  though 
restored  as  a  nation,  they  will  be  restored,  not  in  favor, 
but  in  anger.  Judgments  more  consuming  than  were 
ever  inflicted  upon  them  before  await  them  now.  "The 
Lord  shall  lop  their  bough  with  terror,  and  the  high  ones 
of  stature  shall  be  hewn  down,  and  the  haughty  shall  be 
made  humble."  Antichrist  will  be  the  instrument  em- 
ployed. "  I  will  send  him  against  an  hypocritical  nation, 
and   against    the  people  of    my  wrath  Avill   I  give  him  a 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    rROPHECT.  73 

charge,  to  take  the  spoil,  and  to  take  the  prey,  and  to 
tread  them  down  like  the  mire  of  the  streets."  (Isaiah 
X.  9.)  "  Wherefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  Because  ye 
are  all  become  dross,  behold,  therefore  I  will  bring  you 
[the  entire  House  of  Israel,  all  the  tribes]  into  the  midst 
of  Jerusalem.  As  they  gather  silver,  and  brass,  and 
iron,  and  lead,  and  tin,  into  the  midst  of  the  furnace, 
to  blow  upon  it,  to  melt  it ;  so  will  I  gather  you  [when 
have  they  ever  been  so  gathered  in  the  past  ?]  in  my  an- 
ger and  my  fury,  and  I  will  leave  you  there  and  melt 
you.  Yes  !  I  will  gather  you,  and  blow  upon  you  in  the 
fire  of  my  wrath,  and  ye  shall  be  melted  in  the  midst 
thereof;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  the  Lord  liave  poured 
out  my  fury  upon  you." — Ezekiel  xxii.  19 — 22. 

"  And  the  people  of  the  prince  that  shall  come  shall 
destroy  the  city,  and  the  sanctuary  ;  and  the  end  thereof 
shall  be  with  a  flood,  and  unto  the  end  of  the  war  [of 
Antichrist  against  Israel  and  Jerusalem]  desolations  are 
determined." — Daniel  ix.  26. 

These  persecutions  will  not  cease  until  the  hour  for 
the  destruction  of  Antichrist,  and  the  co-incident  conver- 
sion of  Israel  shall  arrive. 

If  the  Jews  are  to  be  restored  as  a  believing  and  for- 
given nation,  as  some  believe,  why  these  persecutions 
after  their  return  ?  If  they  are  to  be  converted  as  a  na- 
tion^ as  we  know  from  Zechariah  that  they  are  to  be, 
then,  of  course,  must  they  have  returned  unconverted. 

The  Jews  will,  at  first,  willingly  receive  Antichrist. 
"  I  am  come  in  my  Father's  name  and  ye  receive  me  not, 
if  another  shall  come  in  his  own  name,  him  ye  will 
receive." 

Antichrist   will    enter    into    a    covenant   with    them, 
10 


74  THE    ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY. 

"  cleaving  unto  them  with  flatteries."  "  And  he  shall 
confirm  the  covenant  with  many  [i.  e.,  with  Israel]  for 
one  week  [or  hebdomad,  a  period  of  seven  years],  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  week  [at  the  end  of  three  and  a  half 
years]  he  shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to 
cease,  and  for  the  overspreading  of  abominations  he 
shall  make  it  desolate,  even  until  the  consummation  and 
that  determined  shall  be  poured  upon  the  desolator." 
(Daniel  ix.  27.)  That  is,  in  his  jealousy  of  the  undivided 
homage  and  worship  of  all  adherents  of  his  dominion, 
and  of  every  vestige  and  memorial,  however  prostituted, 
of  the  true  God,  he  will  violate  his  covenant,  assail  Jeru- 
salem, and  make  war  upon  its  people.  He  will,  for  a 
time,  be  victorious.  He  will  overthrow  the  Jewish  wor- 
ship. He  will  "  plant  the  tabernacles  of  his  palace  be- 
tween the  seas  in  the  glorious  holy  mountain."  He  will 
"  sit  in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself  that  he  is 
God,"  "  exalting  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  or 
that  is  worshipped,"  setting  up  "  the  abomination  of  des- 
olation" in  the  "Holy  Place."  Then  shall  there  be  a 
time  of  trouble  for  Israel,  such  as  shall  not  have  been 
since  there  was  a  nation,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be.  "  Behold 
the  day  [not  the  "  day  of  the  Lord,"  of  Christ's  second 
coming;  that  is  still  future]  cometh  for  Jehovah,  and 
thy  spoil  shall  be  divided  in  the  midst  of  thee.  For  I 
will  gather  all  nations  against  Jerusalem  to  battle  ;  and 
the  city  shall  be  taken,  and  the  houses  rifled,  and  the 
women  ravished  ;  and  half  of  the  city  shall  go  forth  into 
captivity,  and  the  residue  of  the  people  shall  not  be  cut 
off'."  (Zechariah  xiv.  2.)  This  description  applies,  in  no 
sense,  to  the  subsequent  and  final  siege  of  Jerusalem, 
for  then  the   city  will  not  be  taken,  no  outrage  will  be 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF    PROPHECY.  75 

committed  upon  it  by  its  foes,  no  portion  of  it  will  go 
forth  into  captivity. 

But  the  end  drawetli  nigh.  "  For  the  elects'  sake  [now 
so  nearly  worn  out  by  Antichrist]  those  days  shall  be 
shortened."  Antichrist  "  shall  come  to  his  end  and  none 
shall  help  him."  The  "  battle  of  the  great  day  of  God 
the  Almighty"  is  at  hand.  But  Antichrist  little  foresees 
that  he  will  be  opposed  by  the  armies  of  heaven  and  their 
divine  Commander,  appearing  in  proper  person. 

For  some  untold  reason,  the  "  residue  that  is  not  cut 
off"  rebel  again  against  the  rule  of  Antichrist  and  defy 
his  utmost  rage.  Whereupon  he  prepares  to  assail  Jeru- 
salem more  fiercely  than  ever. 

"  For  behold,  in  those  days,  and  in  that  time,  when  I 
shall  bring  again  the  captivity  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem, 
I  will  also  gather  all  nations  [of  the  prophetic  earth]  and 
will  bring  them  do^vn  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  [Je- 
hovah judging]  and  will  plead  with  them  for  my  people, 
and  for  my  heritage  Israel,  whom  they  have  scattered 
among  the  nations,  and  parted  my  land." — Joel  iii.  1,  2. 

"  Proclaim  ye  this  among  the  Gentiles  :  Prepare  war, 
wake  up  the  mighty  men,  let  all  the  men  of  war  draw 
near,  let  them  come  up  :  Beat   your  ploughshares  into 

swords,  your  pruning  hooks  into  spears Put  ye  in 

the  sickle,  for  the  harvest  is  ripe  ;  come,  and  get  ye 
down,  for  the  press  is  full,  the  vats  overflow  ;  for  their 
wickedness  is  great.     Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  valley 

of  decision The  Lord  also  shall  roar  out  of  Zion, 

and  utter  his  voice  from  Jerusalem,  and  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  shall  shake,  but  the  Lord  will  be  the  hope  of  his 
people,  and  the  strength  of  the  children  of  Israel." — Joel 
iii.  9—16. 


76  THE   ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY. 

"  The  Lord  shall  go  forth,  and  fight  against  those  na- 
tions, as  when  he  fought  in  the  day  of  battle,  and  Ms  feet 
shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives." — Zecli- 
ariah  xiv.  3,  4. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  I  will  seek 
to  destroy  [not  all  nations,  but]  all  the  nations  that  come 
against  Jerusalem  [i.  e.,  the  ten  nations  of  the  prophetic 
earth]  .  .  .  and  they  [i.  e.,  Israel]  shall  look  tqoon  me 
whom  they  have  pierced,  and  they  shall  mourn  for  him, 
as  one  mourneth  for  his  only  son."-7-Zechariah  xii.  9,  10. 

"  And  when  they  had  spoken  these  things,  while  they 
beheld,  he  was  taken  up  ;  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of 
their  sight.  And  while  they  looked  steadfastly  towards 
heaven  as  he  went  up,  behold,  two  men  stood  by  them  in 
white  apparel ;  which  also  said,  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  this  same  Jesus  that  is 
taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  man- 
ner as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven." — Acts  i.  9 — 11. 

"  And  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory." — Our 
Saviour,  in  Matthew  xxiv.  30. 

"  For  they  are  the  spirits  of  demons,  working  mira- 
cles, that  go  forth  unto  the  kings  of  the  whole  world  [t/;? 
oiaoo^niviig  o/.jjc,  i.  e.,  the  whole  prophetic  earth,]  to  gather 
them  to  the  battle  of  the  great  day  of  God  the  Almighty. 
....  And  they  gathered  them  together   into  the  place 

which  is  called  in  Hebrew  Armageddon These 

[i.  e.,  the  ten  kings  of  the  prophetic  earth,  and  the  least'] 
shall  make  war  upon  the  Lamb,  and  the  Lamb  shall  over- 
come them,  because  he  is  the  Lord  of  lords,  and  Kinjr  of 
kings,  and  those  who  are  with  him  are  called,  and  chosen, 
and  faithful."  ....  "And  I  saw  heaven  opened,  and 


THE    ANTICHRIST    OF   PROPHECY.  77 

behold  a  white  horse  ;  and  he    that    sat   upon   him  was 

[called]  Faithful  and  True And  the  armies  which 

Avere  in  heaven  were  following  him  .  .  .  and  out  of  his 
mouth   proceeded  a  sharp  sword,  that  with  it  he  should 
smite  the  nations  :  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod  of 
iron  :  and  he  treadeth  the   winepress  of  the  fierceness  of 
the  wrath  of  God  the  Almighty.    And  he  hath  on  his  gar- 
ment and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written,  King  of  kings,  and 
Lord  of  lords.    And  I  saw  an  angel  standing  in  the  sun  ; 
and  he  cried  with   a  loud  voice,   saying  to  all   the  fowls 
that  fly  in  the   mid-heaven,   Come,  be  gathered  together 
unto  the  great  supper  of  God  ;  that  ye  may  eat  the  flesh 
of  kings,  and  the  flesh  of  chief-captains,  and  the  flesh  of 
mighty  men,  and  the  flesh    of  horses,  and  of  those   that 
sit  on  them,  and  the  flesh  of   all  men,  both  small  and 
•  great.     And  I  saw  the  beast,  and  the   kings  of  the  earth, 
and  his  armies,  gathered  together  to  make  war  with  hini 
that  sat  on  the  horse,  and  with  his  army.      And  the  beast 
was  taken,  and  he  who  was  with  him,  the  false  prophet 
that  wrought  miracles   in  his    presence,  with  which  he 
deceived  those  that  worship  his  image.     These  both  were 
cast  alive  into  the  lake  of  fire  which  burneth  with  brim- 
stone.    And  the  rest  were  killed  with  the   sword  of  him 
that  sat  upon   the  horse,  which   sword  proceeded  out  of 
his  mouth :  and  all  the  fowls  were  filled  with  their  flesh." 
— Revelation  xvi.,  xvii.,  xix.* 

But  Antichrist  and  his   armies  are  not  to  be  the  only 

vulhTi"'- J'^r"""*  ^^  ^\^  ""J"^^-  occasion  when  there  has  been  a  direct  and 
GnH  rfu  H  /^I'^'l'^^i  almighty  power  for  the  deliverance  of  Israel 
God  diyded  the  Red  Sea  for  their  escape  from  Egypt.  He  caused  the 
walls  of  Jericho  to  fall  down.  He  fought  for  thenT'against  the  kin.s  of 
Canaan  He  descended  on  Sinai  to  confirm  with  them,  for  their  fifture 
guidance,  the  covenant  of  the  Law  with  its  glorious  but  rejected  C! 
native  of  perpetual  blessing.  Sinai  trembled  and  was  shaken ;  and  He 
has  said,  "Yet  one  more  I  shake  not  the  earth  only,  but  also  heaven  " 


V5  THE    AJSTHJHKlDi    un    rti.Kjtrxi.iL\^L. 

victims  of  the  interposing  vengeance  of  heaven.  The 
hour  of  the  final  destruction  of  his  golden  capital,  the 
literal  Babylon  of  prophecy,  has  also  arrived.  Note 
the  call  that  summons  forth  the  hordes  of  central  and 
northern  Asia  to  its  destruction,  even  while  his  armies 
are  beleaguring  Jerusalem. 

"  Set  ye  up  a  standard  in  the  land,  blow  the  trumpet 
among  the  nations,  prepare  the  nations  against  her,  the 
kingdoms  of  Ararat,  Minni  and  Aschenaz,  appoint  a 
captain  against  her  ;  cause  the  horses  to  come  up  as  the 
rough  caterpillars.  Prepare  against  her  the  nations  with 
the  kings  of  the  Medes,  the  captains  thereof,  and  all  the 
rulers  thereof.  And  the  land  [of  Babylon]  shall  tremble 
and  sorrow :  for  every  purpose  of  the  Lord  shall  be  per- 
formed against  Babylon,  to  make  her  a  desolation  with- 
out an  inhabitant." — Jeremiah  1.  27 — 29.* 

Thus  Babylon  will  fall.  Thus  "  her  broad  walls  shall 
be  broken,  and  her  high  gates  be  burned  with  fire,"  "her 
mighty  men  be  taken,  and  every  one  of  their  bows  be 
broken,"  "  for  the  spoilers  have  come  unto  her  from  the 
north,"  even  at  the  very  time  (as  swift  messengers  from 
Babylon  will  hasten  to  announce)  that  the  Lord  of  hosts 
"  shall  break  the  Assyrian  in  his  land,"  and  "  upon  His 
mountains  tread  him  under  foot."  Israel,  now  repentant 
and  forgiven,  will  rejoice  and  lift  up  her  loud  and  tri- 
umphant acclaim,  "  How  hath  the  oppressor  ceased — the 
golden  city  ceased." 

Thus  sets,  in  divided  glory  and  gloom,  the  Saturday 
evening's  sun  of  this   Gentile  dispensation,  briefly  pre- 

*  The  "  nations  "  here  referred  to  can  not  be  the  same  as  those  de- 
scribed as  being  gathered,  under  Antichrist,  before  Jerusalem,  for  the 
latter  are  said  expressly  to  be  those  of  the  ten  kings  of  the  prophetic 
earth.    See  Revelation  xvii.  12,  13,  14. 


THE    ANTICHRIST     OF    PROPHECY.  79 

ceding  the  millennial  dawn  of  the  new  Judaic  dispensa- 
tion, when  Jerusalem  shall,  at  last,  "  dwell  safely,"  at 
rest  from  her  Gentile  foes  ;  when  "her  light  shall  go  forth 
as  brightness,  and  the  salvation  thereof  as  a  lamp  that 
burneth  "  to  "  all  the  families  of  the  earth,"  w^ith  none 
to  molest  or  make  afraid  in  all  God's  holy  mountain. 
Thus,  too,  shall  Antichrist  arise  and  "  prosper  and 
practice  "  and  pass  away,  and  the  groaning  and  travailing 
earth,  now,  at  last,  relieved,  enter  upon  a  Sabbath  of 
peaceful  and  blessed  rest,  and  Satan  be  bound  for  a  thou- 
sand years. 

Oh,  how  boundless,  as  a  source  of  comfort  and  support 
and  repose,  will  be  the  prospect  of  that  millennial  rest, 
with  its  earthly  felicity  and  its  heavenly  ministrations,  to 
those  destined  to  pass  through  the  perilous  scenes  of 
the  great  tribulation,  upon  the  very  threshold  of  w^hich 
we  are  entering  even  now !  Yerily,  on  the  other  side  of 
that  fiery  flood,  there  is  "a  rest  that  remaineth  to  the 
people  of  God,"  where  all  tears  will  be  wiped  away  and 
there  Avill  be  no  cross  to  bear.  Earth  hath  no  sorrow 
which  that  rest  will  not  heal. 


CHAPTER    V. 


ISRAEL  AND  JERUSALEM  OF  PROPHECY. 

god's  covenants  concerning    them,   and    their    final 
exaltation. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  subjects  of  the  preced- 
ing chapters — the  restoration  of  the  Jews,  as  an  undi- 
vided and  incorporated  nation,  to  their  own  land  —  their 
restoration  in  unbelief — their  subsequent  persecutions  under 
Antichrist,  and  their  Ausii  forgiveness  and  blessing' — are 
God's  covenants  concerning  them,  and  concerning  his 
and  their  ''  beloved  city." 

These  covenants  consist  of  a  regular  series,  and  bind 
up  within  themselves  almost  the  entire  history  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  insomuch  that  their  history  can  not  be 
properly  understood  without  properly  understanding  these 
covenants  also. 

They  are  four  in  number,  the  Abrahamic,  the  Mosaic, 
the  Davidic,  and  the  "  new  and  everlasting  covenant  of 
grace." 

We  shall  consider  them  in  the  order  in  which  Scripture 
places  them,  that  is,  in  the  order  of  time. 

First  in  order,  both  in  importance  and  in  time,  is  the 
Abrahamic  covenant. 

Concerning  this  covenant  it  should  be  said,  before  en- 
tering upon  a  more  particular  consideration  of  it,  that. 


ISRAEL    AND   JERUSALEM.  81 

perhaps,  there  is  no  higher  scriptural  evidence  of  the 
future  restoration  of  both  families  of  the  House  of  Israel, 
as  an  undivided  nation,  to  their  own  land,  and  of  the 
restoration  of  the  land  itself  to  more  than  its  ancient 
beauty,  fertility  and  glory,  than  the  very  terms  in  which 
this  covenant  is,  not  only  at  first  expressed,  but  afterwards 
so  fully  and  repeatedly  confirmed.  This  covenant  is  not 
only  the  proper  and  essential  starting  point,  but  the  very 
key  to  a  just  biblical  understanding  of  the  past  and  pres- 
ent suffering  condition,  and  the  final  earthly  glory  of 
Israel  and  Jerusalem. 

Abraham,  obedient  to  the  command  of  God,  "  left  his 
country,  his  kindred  and  his  father's  house,"  and  jour- 
neyed westward  toward  Canaan.  Having  entered  Canaan, 
not  knowing  whither  he  was  to  go,  or  where  he  was  to 
take  up  even  a  temporary  abode,  he  continued  his  journey 
until  he  reached  the  plain  of  Moreh.  There  "  the 'Lord 
appeared  unto  him  and  said.  Unto  thy  seed  will  I  give 
this  land.''  And  Abraham  built  an  aUar  there  unto  the 
Lord. 

Subsequently,  after  his  return  from  Egypt,  he  came 
again  unto  "the  place  where  his  tent  had  been  pitched  at 
the  beginning,  unto  the  place  of  the  altar  which  he  had 
made  there  at  the  first."  The  Lord,  appearing  to  him, 
not  directly  upon  the  plain  of  Moreh,  but  upon  a  not 
distant  mountain,  from  whence  the  land,  afterwards 
called  Holy,  stretched  on  every  side,  to  its  farthest  extent 
of  view,  "  said  unto  Abraham,  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes,  and 
look  from  the  place  lohere  thou  art,  northward,  and  south- 
ward, and  eastward,  and  luestward  :  for  all  the  land  which 
thou  seest,  to  thee  will  I  give  ity  and  to  thy  seed  for  ever. 
Arise,  walk  through  the  land,  in  the  length  of  it,  and  in  the 
11 


82  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

hreadtli  of  it ;  for  I  ivill  give  it  unto  thee."  From  this 
elevated  site,  in  the  clear  atmosphere  of  Canaan,  the 
patriarch  could  not  see  a  single  spot,  in  the  entire  range 
of  view  that  encircled  him,  except  the  peak  of  a  far  dis- 
tant mountain,  that  did  not  form  a  portion  of  the  land 
given  by  these  words  of  the  Lord  to  him  and  to  his  seed 
for  ever.  Verily,  "  a  good  land  and  a  large,"  a  gift  wor- 
thy, in  its  freeness,  and  fulness,  and  richness,  and  perpe- 
tuity, of  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth  to  give  to  Abraham, 
his  servant  and  his  friend  ! 

This  gift  the  Lord  afterwards  confirmed  by  a  covenant, 
defining  more  particularly  its  extent,  on  the  day  when  he 
announced  to  the  aged  and  childless  pilgrim  that  he 
would  give  unto  him  a  son  (to  be  the  "  heir  no  less  of 
the  spiritual  than  material  blessings  promised  unto  him). 
"  In  the  same  day  the  Lord  made  a  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham, saying.  Unto  thy  seed  have  I  given  this  land,  from 
the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the  great  river,  the  river  Euphrates ; 
the  Kenites,  and  the  Kennizzites,  and  the  Kadmonites,  and 
the  Hittites,  and  the  Perizzites,  and  the  Rephaims,  and  the 
Amorites,  and  the  Canaanites,  and  the  Girgashites,  and  the 
Jebusites.'* 

Again  ;  in  visions  of  the  night,  "  the  Lord  called  him 
forth  from  the  curtains  of  his  tent  and  commanded  him, 
"  Look  now  toivards  heaven,  and  tell  the  stars,  if  thou  he 
ahle  to  number  them."  Under  the  pure  skies  of  a  Judean 
night,  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  the  innumerable  heavenly 
host,  "  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  said  unto  him.  So  shall 
thy  seed  he,  I  am  the  Lord  that  brought  thee  out  of  Ur  of 
the  Chahlees,  to  give  thee  this  land  to  inherit  it." 

Finally  ;  when  Abraham  was  ninety  years  old  and  nine, 
and  one  year  before  the  birth  of  Isaac,  the  Lord  again 


ISRAEL    AND   JERUSALEM.  83 

appeared  to  him  and  said,  ''  I  ivill  establish  my  covenant 
hetween  me  and  thee  and  thy  seed  after  thee^  in  their 
generations^  for  an  everlasting  covenant^  to  he  a  God 
unto  thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee.  And  I  tvill  give  unto 
thee  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee,  the  land  wherein  thou  art  a 
stranger,  all  the  land  of  Canaan,  for  an  everlasting  posses- 
sion; and  I  loill  he  their  God.''*  Verily,  a  gift  of  godlike 
munificence  to  one,  who,  previously  thereto,  was  neither 
the  father  of  an  heir,  nor,  humanly  speaking,  likely  to  be, 
nor  the  owner  of  a  foot  of  ground !  But  he  trusted  in 
the  most  High  God,  the  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  kept  his  charge,  his  commandments,  his  statutes,  and 
his  laws.  This  was  the  secret  of  the  promise  and  the 
blessing. 

If  the  plainest  of  terms  and  the  divinest  of  authority 
can  establish  the  right  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  to  the  pos- 
session of  the  land  of  promise,  against  the  adverse  claims 
or  occupancy  of  any  and  all  other  nations  ;  or  the  ever- 
lasting tenure  of  that  right ;  or  the  certainty  that  it  will 
be  ultimately  and  nationally  enjoyed  as  an  everlasting  in- 
heritance ;  then,  surely,  such  right,  with  all  the  privileges 
and  blessings  pertaining  to  it,  is  granted  here.  Xo  inter- 
vals of  interrupted  possession,  or  dispersion  and  persecu- 
tion in  other  lands,  no  tenancy  of  other  nations,  of  what- 
ever duration,  can  devest  a  right,  or  impair  the  certainty 
of  its  ultimate  and  everlasting  enjoyment,  clothed  Avith 
sanctions  so  sacred.  No  human  proscription,  no  technical 
forfeiture,  can  run  against  so  divine  a  title. 

Observe  now,  briefly,  the  renewals  by  the  Almighty  of 
this  covenant. 

To  Isaac,  God  said,  '•'■  Sojourn  in  this  land,  and  I  tvill 
he  with  thee  and  bless  thee  ;  for  unto  thee  and  thy  seed  will 


84  ISRAEL   AND    JERUSALEM. 

I  give  all  these  countries;  and  I ivill  perform  the  oath  wMcJi 
I  sivare  unto  Abraham  thy  father^  and  I  will  make  thy 
seed  to  multiply  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  ivill  give  unto 
thy  seed  all  these  countries  ;  and  in  thy  seed  shcdl  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  he  blessed." 

To  Jacob,  God  said,  "  The  land  ivhich  I  gave  Abraham 
and  Isaac,  to  thee  ivill  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee 
ivill  I  give  the  land" 

The  dying  Joseph  said  to  his  brethren  in  Egypt,  *'  God 
will  surely  bring  you  out  of  this  land  unto  the  land  which 
he  sware  to  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob." 

Such  is  the  Abrahamic  covenant ;  such  the  circum- 
stances under  which  it  was  made ;  the  terms  in  which 
it  is  expressed  ;  the  divinely  official  sanctions  which  in- 
vest it ;  its  renewals,  and  its  perpetuity ;  such  the  title 
it  conveys,  and  the  muniments  by  which  that  title  is 
surrounded.  Such  is  the  heaven-chartered  right,  which 
Antichrist  will  seek,  with  unprecedented  fury,  to  wrest 
from  this  now  dispersed  and  despised  and  bleeding  peo- 
ple, and  such  the  covenants  and  oaths  by  which  the 
God  of  Israel  will  oppose  the  fierce  onsets  of  his  Satanic 
wrath. 

The  territory  thus  granted  [not  to  all  the  seed  of 
Abraham  and  Isaac,  for  they  had  other  seed  than 
Jacob,  to  whom  these  covenants  did  not  pertain,  and 
who  had  no  inheritance  in  Israel,  but  to  all  the  seed  of 
Jacob"]  was  not  left  by  the  Almighty  uncertain  or  unde- 
fined. Its  exact  boundaries,  at  all  points,  are  laid  down 
in  Scripture,  with  the  most  careful  and  unambiguous  pre- 
cision, whatever  difficulty  there  may  be  in  defining  them 
with  similar  accuracy  in  modern  terms. 

When  the  Lord  appeared  unto  Moses  with  the  declared 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  86 

purpose  of  delivering  the  children  of  Israel  from  their 
Egyptian  captivity,  and  of  thus  fulfilling  his  covenants 
with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  he  said,  "  I  am 
come  down  to  deliver  my  people  —  and  to  bring  them  up 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  to  bring  them  unto  a  good 
land  and  a  large."  God  himself  defined  the  limits  of  the 
land,  "  And  I  will  set  thy  bounds  by  the  Red  Sea,  even 
unto  the  sea  of  the  Philistines,  and  from  the  desert  unto 

the  river Every  place  whereon  the  soles  of  your 

feet  shall  tread  shall  be  yours ;  from  the  wilderness  and 
Lebanon,  from  the  river,  the  river  Euphrates,  even  unto 
the  uttermost  sea  shall  your  coast  be." — Deut.  xi.  22 — 
26. 

Again,  Moses  defines,  as  follows,  a  portion  of  its  bor- 
ders, in  the  thirty-fourth  chapter  of  Numbers  (6 — 11.) 
"As  for  the  western  border,  ye  shall  have  the  great  sea 
for  a  border  ;  this  shall  be  your  west  border.  This  shall 
be  your  north  border  ;  from  the  great  sea  ye  shall  point 
out  for  you  Mount  Hor.  From  Mount  Hor  ye  shall 
point  out  your  border  unto  the  entrance  of  Hamath  ;  and 
the  goings  forth  of  the  border  shall  be  to  Zedad.  And 
the  border  shall  go  on  to  Ziphron,  and  the  goings  out  of  it 
shall  be  at  Hazar-enan  ;  this  shall  be  your  north  border. 
And  ye  shall  point  out  your  east  border  from  Hazar-enan 
to  Shepham ;  and  the  coast  shall  go  down  from  Shepham 
to  Riblah,  on  the  east  side  Ain,"  &c. 

Thus,  as  above,  has  Moses  recorded  the  limits  of  the 
Promised  Land,  after  the  Canaanitish  tribes  had  acquired 
a  prescriptive  right  thereto  (if  such  a  thing  were  possible 
against  the  sure  word  of  God)  by  adverse  and  unin- 
terrupted  possession  during  a  period  of  four  hundred 
years. 


86  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

Centuries  afterwards,  when  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  Avere 
captive  bondmen  in  lands  far  distant  from  Jerusalem  and 
Samaria,  a  portion  of  them  for  a  period  of  seventy  years, 
but  by  far  the  greater  portion  for  a  period  which  has 
not  ended  even  now,  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  himself  a  fellow- 
exile  in  Chaldea  with  Daniel  and  Jeremiah  and  the  tribes 
of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  thus,  as  follows,  defines,  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  Moses,  the  boundaries  of  the  Promised 
Land,  and  declares  to  the  sorrowing  and  weeping  exiles 
by  the  waters  of  Babylon,  not  less,  than  its  divinely  ap- 
pointed borders,  the  immutability  of  God's  covenants  con- 
cerning it : 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  This  shall  be  the  border 
whereby  ye  shall  inherit  the  land  according  to  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel ;  Joseph  shall  have  two  portions.  And 
ye  shall  inherit  it  one  as  well  as  another  ;  concerning  the 
which  I  lifted  up  my  hand  to  give  it  unto  your  fathers  ;  and 
this  land  shall  fall  to  you  for  inheritance.  And  this 
shall  be  the  border  of  the  land  toward  the  north  side, 
from  the  great  sea,  the  way  of  Hethlon,  as  men  go  to 
Zedad ;  Hamath,  Berothah,  Sibraim,  which  is  between 
the  border  of  Damascus  and  the  border  of  Hamath  ; 
Hazar-hatticon,  which  is  by  the  coast  of  Hauran.  And 
the  border  from  the  sea  shall  be  Hazar-enan,  the  border 
of  Damascus,  and  the  north  northward,  and  the  border 
of  Hamath.  And  this  is  the  north  side.  And  the  east 
side  ye  shall  measure  from  Hauran,  and  from  Damascus, 
and  from  Gilead,  and  from  the  land  of  Israel  by  Jordan, 
from  the  border  unto  the  east  sea.  And  this  is  the  east 
side.  And  the  south  side  southward,  from  Tamar  to  the 
waters  of  strife  in  Kadesh,  the  river  to  the  great  sea. 
And  this  is  the   south   side   southward.      The  west  side 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  87 

also  shall  be  tlie  great  sea  from  the  border,  till  a  man 
comes  over  against  Hamath.  This  is  the  west  side. 
So  shall  ye  divide  this  land  according  to  the  tribes  of 
Israel."— Ezekiel  xlvii.  13—22. 

We  may  not  be  able  to  trace  these  boundaries  now  as 
accurately  as  the  above  description  would  seem  to  imply,  or 
to  verify  them  in  terms  of  modern  geography,  but  they 
are  not,  for  that  reason,  any  the  less  absolutely  definite,  as 
the  immutable  and  divinely-declared  limits  of  the  Prom- 
ised Land  ;   as  immutable    to-day  as  on  those  far  distant 
days,  when  God,  both  by  direct  communication,  and  by 
the  mouth  of  his  holy  prophets,  first  defined  them.     And 
the  immutability  of    his  covenanted  purposes  concerning 
the  children  of  Israel  and  their  land  can  no    more    be 
shaken  by  any  occupancy,  or  user,  or  prescriptive  claims 
of     other    nations,    during  these   long  and   weary    cen- 
turies   of   dispersion  and    persecution    among   the  Gen- 
tiles,   than   it   was     by  the   captivity   of    four    hundred 
years    in  Egypt,  or  the  exile  of  seventy  years  at  Baby- 
lon.      All  the  tribes  will,    as   truly   as   God  liveth,  and 
his    covenant   standeth    sure,    go    back    to   the    Prom- 
ised Land  from  their  Gentile  dispersion,  even  as  all  went 
back  from  their  Egyptian,  and  a  portion  of  them  from 
their  Babylonian  bondage,  for  the  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham was  an  everlasting  covenant.     And  when  they  re- 
turn from  among  the  Gentiles,  it  will  be  their  last  return, 
their  final  restoration  ;  "  ^o  look  "  (after  a  brief  season  of 
unequalled  tribulation)  ''upon  him  whom  they  pierced";  to 
acknowledge  him  as  their  king  ;  to  repent  and  be  forgiven  ; 
and  to  become  a  blessing  to  all  the  nations  of  the   earth, 
which  latter  provision   of  the    Abrahamic  covenant  has 


88  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

never,  in  the  past,  been,  in  any  sense,  or  for  the  briefest 
period,  fulfilled.  Then  will  the  "  times  of  the  Gentiles 
be  fulfilled,"  and  Antichrist  and  his  hosts  be  miraculously 
destroyed,  and  hi»  golden  capital  be  destroyed,  and 
down-trodden  Israel  be  uplifted,  and  their  beloved  city 
become  "  a  name  of  joy,  and  a  praise  and  honor,  in  all 
the  earth."  Then  will  all  the  blessings,  hotli  material  and 
spiritual,  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  for  the  first  time, 
and  for  all  coming  time,  be  realized  by  Israel,  and  its 
spiritual  blessings  by  all  other  nations  of  the  earth. 

Such  is  the  covenant,  which  God  made  with  the 
fathers  of  Israel,  with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
commencing  with  a  homeless  but  trusting  and  believing 
wanderer  amidst  the  oaks  of  Moreh,  and  ending  only 
when  the  last  of  his  seed  shall  have  closed  their  earthly 
career,  and  time  shall  be  succeeded  by  the  eternal  state. 
Such,  so  actual,  so  almost  inconceivable,  is  to  be  the  fu- 
ture glory  of  Israel.  But  we  need  not  envy  her,  for,  when 
restored  and  pardoned,  she  will  dispense  the  spiritual 
blessings  of  the  covenant  with  overflowing  fulness,  with 
a  God-like  beneficence,  with  no  invidious  hand,  and 
all  other  people,  and  kindreds  and  tongues  will  be  wel- 
come partakers  of  her  glory.  "  The  Gentiles  shall  come 
to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy  rising." 

Every  covenant  hath  its  seal.  The  seal  of  the  Abra- 
hamic covenant  Avas  the  rite  of  circumcision.  Circum- 
cision was  instituted  as  a  token  of  an  everlasting  cove- 
nant, which  it  was  also  called.  "  This  is  my  covenant 
which  ye  shall  keep,  between  mo  and  you,  and  thy  seed 
after  thee  :  every  man  child  among  you  shall  be  circum- 
cised ;  and  it  shall  be  a  token  of  the  covenant  betwixt  me 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  89 

and  you  :  He  that  is  born  in  thy  house,  and  he  that  is 
bought  with  thy  money,  must  needs  be  circumcised  ;  and 
my  covenant  shall  be  in  your  flesh  for  an  everlasting 
covenant." — Genesis  xvii.  6,  8. 

The  children  of  Israel  might  have  entered  into  full 
and  quiet  and  uninterrupted  possession  of  their  covenanted 
inheritance  at  once,  and  into  the  enjoyment  of  its  cove- 
nanted blessings,  so  unconditioned,  so  unmingled,  so  glo- 
rious, but  their  uncircumcised  hearts  turned  away  from 
the  God  of  their  fathers,  and  they  chose  other  and  false 
gods,  until,  at  last,  to  punish  them  for  their  sins,  to  bring 
them  to  repentance,  to  subdue  their  hearts  and  cleanse 
them  from  their  iniquities,  God  sent  them  into  cap- 
tivity to  the  kings  of  Egypt ;  if  so  be  they  might  thereby 
be  made  worthy  heirs  and  possessors  of  so  precious  a 
heritage. 

When,  at  the  end  of  four  hundred  years,  the  bitterness 
of  their  bondage  had  become  almost  insupportable,  God 
"  brought  them  up  out  of  Egypt"  ;  but  scarcely  had  they 
recrossed  its  borders,  on  their  way  to  the  Promised  land, 
amidst  miraculous  displays  of  divine  mercy  in  their  be- 
half, when  they  again  rebelled,  and  forfeited  again  the 
blessings  of  the  covenant. 

Whereupon  God  instituted  a  new  covenant,  entering 
into  covenant  with  them,  as  he  had  entered  into  cove- 
nant with  their  fathers.  But  the  covenant  with  them  was 
not,  like  the  former  covenant,  a  covenant  of  unmingled 
blessing,  but  presented  to  their  choice  an  alternative  of 
blessing  or  of  cursing.  If  they  chose  its  curses  (which 
they  did),  the  Abrahamic  covenant  was  to  be,  thereafter, 
not  superseded  or  annulled,  but  suspended^  until  the  cov- 
enant with  them,  exhausted  of  its  curses  and  its  coming 
12 


90  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

woes,  should,  upon  their  final  repentance,  ensuing  upon 
the  persecutions  of  Antichrist,  and  supernatural  interpo- 
sitions in  their  behalf,  be  remitted  and  annulled  by  the 
"new  and  everlasting   covenant  of  grace." 

But,  though  suspended,  how  wholly  unforgotten  of  God 
was  his  covenant  with  Abraham  ;  how  for  ever  sure  its 
promises  and  its  ratifying  oaths !  for  upon  the  very 
day  that  God  commanded  them,  "To-morrow,  turn  ye, 
get  ye  into  the  wilderness,"  he  also  said,  remembering 
his  covenant  with  their  fathers,  and  "  swearing  by  him- 
self, as  he  could  not  swear  by  a  greater,"  "  As  truly  as 
I  live,  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the 
Lord." 

The  covenant  thus  entered  into  with  his  rebellious  chil- 
dren, amidst  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  was  the  Mosaic  cove- 
nant, the  covenant  of  the  Law,  of  the  ten  commandments. 

If  its  ofiered  blessings  were  accepted  (as  accepted  they 
were  not),  the  blessings  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  both 
material  (so  far  as  themselves  were  concerned)  and  spir- 
itual (so  far  as  both  themselves  and,  through  them,  "  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth"  were  concerned)  might  begin  to 
be  realized  at  once,  and  their  full  consummation  be 
speedily  attained.  But  if  the  ofiered  curse  should  be 
their  choice  (as  their  choice  it  was),  then  would  the 
blessings  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant  remain  abeyant,  and 
be  realized  by  their  children's  children  only,  in  remotest 
generations,  after  centuries  upon  centuries  of  bitterest 
persecution  and  most  fiery  trial  had  passed  away.  And 
its  spiritual  blessings,  according  to  the  proper  sense  and 
full  import  of  its  terms  (as  is  so  convincingly  attested  by 
the  whole  subsequent  history  of  God's  providence,  and 
as  the  "  sure  word  of  prophecy"  so  abundantly  confirms) 


ISRAEL   AND   JERUSALEM.  91 

were  not  "  to  be  realized  by  all  other  nations  and  all 
other  families  of  the  earth  {through  their  agency)^  until 
its  blessings  (both  material  and  spiritual)  were  first 
realized  by  them. 

We  should  note  carefully  the  terms  in  which  the  Mo- 
saic covenant  is  expressed.     We  quote  but  in  part. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  shalt  hearken  dili- 
gently unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  observe  and 
do  all  his  commandments  which  I  command  thee  this 
day,  that  the  Lord  thy  God  will  set  thee  on  high  above 
all  nations  of  the  earth :  and  all  these  blessings  shall 
come  on  thee,  and  overtake  thee,  if  thou  shalt  hearken 
unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  Blessed  shalt  thou 
be  in  the  city,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field. 
Blessed  shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy 
ground,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  and  the  increase  of 
thy  kine,  and  the  flocks  of  thy  sheep.  Blessed  shall  be 
thy  basket  and  thy  store.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  when 
thou  comest  in,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  goest 

out The  Lord  shall  command  the  blessing  upon 

thee  in  thy  storehouses,  and  in  all  that  thou  settest  thine 
hand  unto  ;  and  he  shall  bless  thee  in  the  land  which  the 
Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

"  But  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  wilt  not  hearken  unto 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  observe  to  do  all  his 
commandments  and  his  statutes  which  I  command  thee 
this  day  ;  that  all  these  curses  shall  come  upon  thee  and 
overtake  thee  ;  cursed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  city,  and 
cursed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field.  Cursed  shall  be  thy 
basket  and  thy  store.  Cursed  shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy 
body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  land,  the  increase  of  thy  kine, 
and  the  flocks  of  thy  sheep.     Cursed  shalt  thou  be  when 


y2  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

thou  comest  in,  and  cursed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  goest 

out and  the  heaven  that  is  over  thy  head  shall  be 

brass,  and  the  earth  that  is  under  thee  shall  be  iron  .  .  . 
and  thou  shalt  become  an  astonishment,  a  proverb,  and 
a  byword  among  all  the  nations  whither  the  Lord  shall 
lead  thee." 

"  I  call  heaven  and  earth  to  record  against  thee  this 
day,  that  I  have  set  before  you  life  and  death,  blessing 
and  cursing  ;  therefore  choose  life,  that  thou  may  est  dwell 
in  the  land  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  thy  fathers,  to 
Abraliam^  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob,  to  give  them.'' — Deut. 
xxviii,  XXX. 

But  observe  how  ever-mindful  was  God  of  his  cove- 
nant with  their  fathers.  Standing,  as  it  were,  upon  the 
sure  foundation  of  its  everlasting  promises,  and  appealing 
unto  them  therefrom,  his  mercy  thus  invites  them. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  when  all  these  things  are 
come  upon  thee,  the  blessing  and  the  curse  which  I  have 
set  before  thee,  and  thou  shalt  call  them  to  mind,  among 
all  the  nations  among  wiiom  the  Lord  thy  God  hath 
driven  thee,  and  shalt  return  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  and 
shalt  obey  his  voice  according  to  all  that  I  command  thee 
this  day,  thou  and  thy  children,  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul ;  that  then  the  Lord  thy  God  will  turn 
thy  captivity,  and  have  compassion  upon  thee,  and  will 
return  and  gather  thee  from  all  the  nations,  ivhither  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  scattered  thee.  If  any  of  thine  be 
driven  into  the  outmost  parts  of  heaven,  from  thence  will 
the  Lord  thy  God  gather  thee,  and  from  thence  will  he 
fetch  thee  :  and  the  Lord  thy  God  will  Iring  thee  into 
the    land   which    thy  fathers    possessed,   and    thou    shalt 


ISRAEL    AND    JEKUSALEM.  93. 

2WSSCSS  it ;  and  he  imll  do  thee  good  and  multiply  thee  above 
thy  fathers." — Deut.  xxx. 

"  If  they  shall  confess  their  iniquity,  and  the  iniquity 
of  their  fathers,  with  their  trespasses  which  they  tres- 
passed against  me,  and  also  that  they  have  walked  con- 
trary unto  me ;  and  that  I  also  have  walked  contrary 
unto  them,  and  have  brought  them  into  the  land  of  their 
enemies  ;  if  then  their  uncircumcised  hearts  be  humbled, 
and  they  then  accept  of  the  punishment  of  their  iniquity  : 
Then  loill  I  remember  my  covenant  luith  Jacob,  and  also 
my  covenant  with  Isaac,  and  cdso  my  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham will  I  remember,  and  I  ivill  remember  the  land." — 
Levit.  XX vi.  40 — 42. 

"  When  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee,  even  in 
the  LATTER  DAYS,  if  thou  tum  to  the  Lord  thy  God,  and 
shalt  be  obedient  to  his  voice  (for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  a 
merciful  God)  he  will  not  forsake  thee,  neither  destroy 
thee,  nor  forget  the  covenant  with  thy  fathers  luhich  he 
sware  unto  them." — Deut.  iv.  30,  31. 

But  alas  !  alas  for  them,  and  alas  for  us,  children  of  the 
Gentiles,  whose  millennium  must  await  their  millennium, 
whose  millennium  can  not  commence  so  long  as  we  tread 
them  down,  and  our  times  are  not  fulfilled,  and  Anti- 
christ hath  not  reigned  and  passed  away,  and  the  tribula- 
tion inflicted  upon  the  Jews,  as  a  re-gathered  nation,  by 
his  persecutions,  hath  not  ceased  (for  when  the  millennium 
comes  at  last,  it  will  come  to  all,  both  Jew  and  Gentile, 
and  will  know  no  discrimination  between  any  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth,  of  whatever  nation  or  kindred  or 
tongue,  Jew  or  Gentile,  bond  or  free,  in  the  spiritual 
blessino^s  it  will  bestow,  for  the  millennium  is  but  another 
name  for  the  consummation,  the  fruition,  of  the  spiritual 


94  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

blessings  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant), — alas  !  we  say, 
alas  for  them,  and  alas  for  us  !  they,  the  children  of 
Israel,  the  chosen  seed  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
even  at  the  foot  of  Sinai,  despised  the  offered  blessing, 
and  chose  the  offered  curse.  It  was  little  less  than  a 
second  apostasy,  involving,  as  it  were,  in  a  second  fall, 
and  a  deeper  ruin,  not  themselves  only,  but  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  weary  round  of  those  chosen 
curses  has  been  rolling  over  their  smitten  land  and 
guilty  heads  ever  since, — is  rolling  now.  No  seats  in 
parliaments,  or  cabinets,  or  chairs  of  learning,  no  vaults 
of  silver  and  gold,  stretching,  Rothschild-like,  their  Bri- 
arean  arms  across  land  and  sea,  over  almost  the  entire 
circle  of  Gentile  rule,  and  laying  their  weight  no  where 
so  heavily  or  so  securely,  with,  as  it  were,  so  irresistible 
a  destiny,  as  upon  the  "  Promised  Land,"  no  political 
encompassment  of  thrones,  no  lapse  of  time,  no  witch- 
ery of  music  or  of  song,  can  soothe  the  anguish,  or  lull 
to  rest  the  unsleeping  terrors  of  that  chosen  doom. 

Notice  the  tenderness  of  David  in  their  behalf:  "  Seek 
ye  the  Lord  and  his  strength ;  seek  his  face  contin- 
ually. Remember  his  marvellous  works  that  he  hath 
done,  his  Avonders,  and  the  judgments  of  his  mouth  ;  O  ye 
seed  of  Jacob  his  servant,  ye  children  of  Jacob,  his 
chosen  ones.  He  is  the  Lord  our  God  ;  his  judgments  are 
in  all  the  earth.  Be  ye  mindful  always  of  his  covenant^ 
the  word  Avhich  he  commanded  to  a  thousand  generations  ; 
even  the  covenant  which  he  made  with  Abraham,  and  his 
oath  unto  Isaac  ;  and  hath  enjoined  the  same  to  Jacob  for 
a  law,  and  to  Israel  for  an  everlasting  covenant;  saying, 
Unto  thee  will  /  give  the  land  of  Canaan^  the  lot  of  your 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  95 

inheritance;  when  ye  were  but  few,  even  a  few,  and  stran- 
gers in  it."— 1  Chron.  xvi.  11—19.     Ps.  cv.  4—12. 

But  rebellious  Israel  remembered  not  his  "  marvellous 
works,  and  the  judgments  of  his  mouth"  ;  they  were  not 
"  mindful  always "  of  the  covenant  which  he  swore  unto 
their  fathers.  They  heeded  the  persuasions  of  mercy,  as 
little  as  the  warnings  of  wrath.  And  yet  God  "forgot, 
never  for  a  moment,  his  ancient  covenant.  His  heart  was 
always  turned  towards  them.  His  hand  was  always 
stretched  out  still.  Indeed,  as  if  to  affix  a  final,  a  more 
solemn,  seal  to  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  as  if  to  reaffirm 
its  perpetuity,  and  to  renew  the  oaths  that  bound  it,  as  if, 
indeed,  that  "  everlasting  covenant"  would  not  otherwise 
stand  for  ever  sure,  as  if  to  anticipate  their  repentance 
and  forgiveness,  and  its  measureless  wealth  of  unmingled 
blessing,  he  superadded  to  it  a  supplementary  covenant, 
the  covenant  with  his  servant  David,  filled,  not  less,  with 
unmingled  and  overflowing  blessing,  without  the  shadow 
of  a  curse. 

"  I  have  made  a  covenant  with  my  chosen,  I  have 
sworn  unto  David  my  servant.  Thy  seed  will  I  establish 
for  ever  and  build  up  thy  throne  to  all  generations." — 
Ps.  Ixxxix.  1 — 4. 

"Then  thou  spakest  in  vision  to  thy  holy  One,  and 
saidst,  I  have  laid  help  on  one  that  is  mighty  ;  I  have  ex- 
alted one  chosen  out  of  the  people.  I  have  found  David 
my  servant ;  with  my  holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him ; — 
Avith  whom  my  hand  shall  be  established.  My  faithful- 
ness and  my  mercy  shall  be  with  him  ;  and  in  my  name 
shall  his  horn  be  exalted.  Also,  I  will  make  him,  my 
first-born,  higher  than  the  kings  of  the  earth.  My  mercy 
will  I  keep  for  him  for  evermore,  and  my  covenant  shall 


96  ISRAEL  AND  JERUSALEM. 

stand  fast  ivith  him.  His  seed  also  will  I  make  to  endure 
for  ever,  and  his  throne  as  the  days  of  heaven.  I  ivill  not 
suffer  my  faithfulness  to  fail.  My  covenant  will  I  not 
hreaJt,,  nor  alter  the  thing  that  is  gone  out  of  my  lips.  Once 
more  I  sware  by  my  holiness  that  I  will  not  lie  unto 
David.  His  seed  shall  endure  for  ever,  and  his  throne  as 
the  sun  before  me." — Ps.  Ixxxix.  19,  20,  24 — 26. 

Listen  to  the  millennial  invitation  of  Israel  to  "  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,"  when  this  covenant  with  David 
shall  have  been  fulfilled ;  when  Zion  shall  have  awaked 
and  put  on  her  strength  and  Jerusalem  her  beautiful  gar- 
ments, "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the 
waters,  and  he  that  hath  no  money  ;  come  ye,  buy  and  eat ; 
yea,  come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money  and  with- 
out price  ;  incline  your  ear  and  come  unto  me  ;  hear  and 
your  soul  shall  live  ;  and  I  will  make  an  everlasting  cove- 
nant with  you,  even  the  sure  mercies  of  David.'" — Isaiah 
iv.  1—3. 

This  invitation  is,  doubtless  (in  a  spiritual  sense)  both 
pre-millennial  and  millennial.  It  is,  without  question, 
spiritually  applicable,  at  all  times,  both  before  and  after 
the  second  coming  of  Christ,  to  all,  Jew  and  Gentile  alike, 
to  become  partakers  of  the  spiritual  blessings  of  the 
Abrahamic  covenant,  to  be  followers  of  Christ,  and  to  be 
numbered  with  the  elect.  But  in  its  primary  and  more 
specially  intended  sense,  it  would  seem  more  strictly  ap- 
plicable to  Israel  in  the  period  of  her  millennial  glory, 
when  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  material,  not  less  than 
spiritual,  blessings  of  that  covenant. 

But  in  the  days  of  the  covenants  and  invitations  and 
warnings  which  we  have  considered,  nothing  availed 
against  the  rebellious   obstinacy  of  Israel.     The  appeals 


ISRAEL    AND    JEUUSALEM.  97 

of  the  greatest  of  their  hiwgivers  to  the  thunders  of 
Sinai :  of  the  most  eloquent  and  glowing  of  their  prophets 
to  the  millennial  glories  of  Zion,  upon  the  second  coming 
of  their  Lord  ;  the  appeals  of  the  mightiest  of  their  kings 
(though  in  strains  attuned  to  a  lyre  that  was  mightier  even 
tlian  his  throne),  when  he  called  to  their  remembrance  the 
promised  blessings  of  the  covenant  with  Abraham,  the 
''  word  which  God  commanded  to  a  thousand  genera- 
tions," invested  with  an  added  glory  by  the  covenant  made 
by  God  with  himself,  were  all  alike  in  vain.  Never  was 
there,  never  has  there  been,  even  until  now,  a  time,  when 
it  was  not  true  of  the  rebellious  House  of  Israel,  that 
which  was  spoken  by  Isaiah :  "  Hear,  O  heavens,  give 
ear,  O  earth  ;  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken.  I  have  nour- 
ished and  brought  up  children,  and  they  have  rebelled 
against  me.  The  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his 
master's  crib  :  but  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people  doth 
not  consider.  A  sinful  nation,  a  people  laden  with 
iniquity,  a  seed  of  evildoers,  children  that  are  corrupters  : 
tliey  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  they  have  provoked  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel  unto  anger,  they  are  gone  away  back- 
ward."— Isaiah  i.  2 — 4:. 

And  yet  listen  to  the  yearnings,  not  less  than  to  the  lam- 
entations, of  God  over  them.  "  When  Israel  was  a  child, 
then  I  loved  him,  and  called  my  son  out  of  Egypt.  .  .  . 
I  drew  them  with  cords  of  a  man,  with  bands  of  love, 
and  I  was  to  them  as  they  that  take  off  the  yoke  on  their 

jaws,  and  I  laid  meat  unto  them But  my  people 

are  bent  to  backsliding  from  me  :  though  they  called  them 
to  the  Most  High,  none  at  all  would  exalt  him.  How 
shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?  how  shall  I  deliver  thee, 
Israel?  how  shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah?  how  shall  I  set 


98  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

thee  as  Zeboim?  mine  heart  is  turned  within  me,  my  re- 
pentings  are  kindled  together." — Hosea  xi. 

Even  when  their  Messiah  came,  to  plead  with  them  ;  to 
weep  over  them  ;  to  gather  them  together  as  a  hen  gather- 
eth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  that  their  house  might 
no  more  be  left  unto  them  desolate  ;  to  enter  into  a  new 
and  everlasting  covenant  of  grace  with  them  ;  they  derided 
and  reviled  him  ;  they  smote  him  ;  they  spat  upon  him ; 
they  crucified  him,  with  as  little  compunction  as  their  Ro- 
man rulers  would  have  crucified  a  Roman  slave.  But  a 
hidden  thunderbolt,  red  with  uncommon  wrath,  was  about 
to  descend  upon  them  from  the  stores  of  heaven.  "His 
blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  children."  And,  true  to  the 
self-imprecation,  his  blood  has  fallen,  and  this  added  curse 
has  rested,  and  will  rest,  upon  them,  until,  at  last,  de- 
livered from  their  captivity,  and  regathered  as  a  nation  in 
unbelief,  they  will  be  smitten  by  Antichrist  as  never  smitten 
before,  and  be  overwhelmed  by  that  flood  of  tribulation, 
such  as  never  was  since  there  was  a  nation,  no,  nor  ever 
shall  be. 

But  darkness  abideth  only  for  the  night,  and  though  its 
latest  be  its  deepest  darkness,  yet  "joy  cometh  in  the 
morning." 

When,  gathered,  at  last,  in  and  around  their  ancient 
and  beloved  capital  to  defend  it  against  the  assaults  of 
Antichrist  and  his  innumerable  hosts  —  summoned  to  the 
"  battle  of  the  great  day  of  God  Almighty,"  from  the 
ten  allied  realms  of  the  prophetic  earth  —  they  behold 
their  rejected  and  crucified,  but  now  kingly  Messiah, 
appearing,  in  proper  person,  in  the  clouds  of  heaven, 
with  power  and  great  glory,  "  with  the  armies  of  heaven 
following";  when  they  behold  him  "standing  upon  the 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  99 

Moiint  of  Olives,"  and  look  upon  "  him"  ("  the  same 
Jesus")  ''whom  they  pierced,"  when  they  behold  him, 
though  presented  to  their  view,  as  of  old,  in  bodily  form, 
yet  arrayed  in  the  celestial  splendor  of  resurrection 
glory,  surrounded  by  the  sainted  dead  of  all  the  ages, 
and  by  the  sainted  living,  arrayed,  in  like  manner  with 
him,  in  their  resurrection  glory :  surrounded,  too,  by  all 
the  holy  angels  ;  when  the  rending  earth,  and  the  dark- 
ened sun,  and  the  moonless  and  starless  sky,  and  the 
shaking  heavens,  conspire  to  attest  the  immediate  appear- 
ing of  the  King  of  kings  ;  when  they  behold  the  mani- 
festations of  divine  mercy  displayed  in  their  behalf,  and 
of  divine  wrath  displayed  against  their  foes,  when  they 
witness  their  supernatural  destruction  ;  then,  then,  at  last, 
hut  not  till  then,  will  they  confess  their  guilt,  and  ac- 
kuowledore  their  kinjij :  then  "  there  shall  be  a  fountain 
opened  to  the  house  of  David,  and  upon  the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem,  for  sin  and  uncleanness,"  and  "  the 
spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplication  be  poured  upon 
the  house  of  David,  and  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Je- 
rusalem," and  "  the  land  shall  mourn  every  family 
apart,"  "  as  one  mourneth  for  an  only  son,"  and  blessed 
shall  they  be  'svhen  they  mourn  ;  for  they  shall  be  com- 
forted. God  will  accept  their  repentance,  and  "  will  cast 
all  their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  Then  will  be 
repealed  the  dread  covenant  of  Sinai,  and  a  millennium 
of  blessing  and  an  eternity  of  glory  succeed  to  a  few 
brief  and  forgotten  generations  of  guilt,  and  tribulation, 
and  shame.  Then  will  be  fulfilled  that  blessed  trinity  of 
covenants,  the  covenant  of  Abraham,  the  covenant  of 
David,  and  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant  of  grace. 
The  covenant  of  David   will  exalt  to  his  now  lapsed 


100  ISRAEL  AND   JERUSALEM. 

throne  a  "  righteous  branch,"  Avhich  shall  "  execute  judg- 
ment and  righteousness,"  and  reign  for  a  thousand  years  ; 
until  He  shall  give  up  the  kingdom  unto  his  Father,  that 
God  may  be  all  in  all.  "  And  when  all  things  shall  be 
subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  sub- 
ject unto  him  that  put  all  things  under  him,  that  God  may 
be  all  in  all."— 1  Cor.  xv.  28. 

The  new  and  everlasting  covenant  of  grace  Avill  descend 
to  bless,  not,  as  now,  scattered  individuals  only,  here  a 
Jew  and  a  Gentile  there,  but,  as  was  confirmed  unto  Isaac, 
*''•  all  the  nations  of  the  earth." 

But  first  of  all,  and  last  of  all,  and  comprehending  all, 
Avill  be  established,  in  fulness  of  millennial  glory,  over 
all  the  land,  and  over  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land, 
the  covenant  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob. 

Says  Jeremiah,  looking  forward  to  the  fulfilment  of 
this  covenant ; 

"  Behold,  I  will  bring  it  [Jerusalem]  health  and  cure, 
and  I  will  cure  them,  and  will  reveal  unto  them  the 
abundance  of  peace  and  truth.  And  I  will  cause  the 
captivity  of  Israel  and  the  captivity  of  Judah  to  return^ 
and  will  build  them  up  as  at  the  first  [which  certainly  has 
never  been  as  yet].  And  it  [Jerusalem]  shall  be  to  me 
a  name  of  joy,  a  praise  and  an  honor  before  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  which  shall  hear  all  the  good  that  I  do 
unto  them  ;  and  they  shall  fear  and  tremble  for  all  the 
goodness  and  all  the  prosperity  that  I  procure  unto  it." 
— Jer.  xxxiii.  6 — 10. 

These  visions  of  Jeremiah  of  the  glory  and  blessedness 
of  Israel  and  Jerusalem,  consequent  upon  the  joint  return 
of  all  the  tribes  ;  upon  their  corporate  unity  as  a  restored 
nation,  and  upon  the  termination  of  the   persecutions  of 


ISKAEL    AND    JEKUjjALEM.  101 

Antichrist,  mIicti  God's  consuming  vengeance  and  their 
great  tribulation  shall  reach  their  full ;  when  that  which 
is  determined  shall  be  poured  upon  the  desolator,  and  the 
consumption  shall  overflow  with  righteousness  :  were  ut- 
tered by  Jeremiah  inore  than  a  century  after  the  ten  tribes 
of  Israel  were  carried  into  that  captivity  from  which  they 
have  never  to  this  day  returned,  and  in  which  no  sure 
trace  of  them  has  ever  been  discovered.  Their  fulfilment 
belongs,  therefore,  beyond  all  question,  to  the  future. 

The  verses  next  preceding  those  last  quoted  from  Jere- 
miah, emphasize,  more  especially,  the  material  blessings 
which  will  ensue  upon  the  fulfilment  of  the  Abrahamic 
covenant. 

"•  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Again  there  shall  be  heard  in 
this  place,  which  ye  say  shall  be  desolate  without  man, 
and  without  inhabitants,  and  without  beast,  the  voice  of 
joy,  and  the  voice  of  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bride- 
groom, and  the  voice  of  the  bride,  the  voice  of  them  that 
shall  say.  Praise  the  Lord  of  hosts  ;  for  the  Lord  is 
good  ;  for  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever  ;  and  of  them  that 
shall  bring  the  sacrifice  of  praise  unto  the  house  of  the 
Lord  :  for  I  will  cause  to  return  the  captivity  of  the  land  as 
at  the  first. 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  Again  in  this  place, 
which  is  desolate  Avithout  man  and  without  beast,  and  in 
all  the  cities  thereof,  shall  be  an  habitation  of  shepherds 
causing  their  flocks  to  lie  down.  In  the  cities  of  the 
mountains,  in  the  cities  of  the  vale,  and  in  the  cities  of 
the  south,  and  in  the  land  of  Benjamin,  and  in  the  places 
about  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  cities  of  Judah,  shall  the 
flocks  pass  again  under  the  hands  of  him  that  telleth 
them,    saith    the   Lord." — Jer.   xxxiii.    10 — 14.      Surely 


102  ISRAEL    AND    JP:RUSALEM. 

this  revelation  would  seem  to  contemplate  something  more 
than  spiritual  blessings  only. 

The  prophet  proceeds,  in  the  succeeding  verses  of  the 
same  chapter,  to  announce  the  fulfilment  of  the  Davidic 
covenant ;  the  period  of  its  fulfilment  and  the  contempo- 
raneousness of  that  period  with  that  of  the  fulfilment  of 
the  covenant  with  Abraham. 

"  In  those  days,  and  at  that  time,  will  I  cause  tlie 
branch  of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David  ;  and  he 
shall  execute  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  land.  In 
those  days  shall  Judah  he  saved,  and  Jerusalem  shall  dwell 
safely,  and  this  is  the  name  wherewith  she  shall  be  called. 

The  Lord  our  righteousness If  my  covenant  be 

not  Avith  day  and  night,  and  if  I  have  not  appointed  the 
ordinances  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  then  will  I  cast  away 
the  seed  of  Jacob,  and  David  my  servant,  so  that  I  will 
not  take  any  of  his  seed  to  be  rulers  over  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob  :  for  I  will  cause  their  captivity  to 
return,  and  have  mercy  on  them." — Jeremiah  xxxiii.  15, 
16,  25,  26. 

Observe  the  descending,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  new 
and  everlasting  covenant  of  grace,  and  its  overflowing 
fulness  of  blessing.  "  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  ivith  the  house  of 
Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah  ;  not  according  to  the 
covenant  that  I  made  with  their  fathers  in  the  day  that 
I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring  them  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt ;  which  my  covenant  they  brake,  although  I  was 
an  husband  unto  them,  saith  the  Lord  :  But  this  shall  be 
the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel ; 
After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  my  law  in 
their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  will 


ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM.  103 

be  their  God  aud  they  shall  be  my  people.  And  they 
shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor,  and  every 
man  his  brother,  saying,  know  the  Lord  !  for  they  shall 
all  know  me  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of 
them,  saith  the  Lord  :  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity, 
and  I  will  remember  their  sin  no  more." — Jeremiah  xxxi. 
31—35. 

Who  will  venture  to  say  that  their  iniquity,  or  the  tres- 
passes Avherewith  they  have  trespassed  against  the  Al- 
mighty, have  ever  yet  been  forgiven,  or  that  their  sins  are 
not  remembered  still?  Then  can  this  prophecy  find  its 
appointed  fulfilment  in  the  future  only. 

But  the  crowning  blessing,  and  crowning  glory  of  that 
blissful  era,  will  be  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  "the  city  of 
the  Great  King,"  the  "mountain  of  the  Lord's  house," 
the  metropolis  of  the  millennial  earth. 

"  The  place  of  my  throne  and  the  place  of  the  soles  of 
my  feet,  where  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of  the  children  of 
Israel  for  ever." — Ezekiel  xliii.  7. 

"  O  thou  aflflicted,  tossed  with  tempest,  and  not  com- 
forted, behold,  I  will  lay  thy  stones  with  fair  colors,  and 
lay  thy  foundations  with  sapphires.  And  I  will  make 
thy  windows  of  agates,  and  thy  gates  of  carbuncles,  and 
all  thy  borders  of  pleasant  stones.  And  all  thy  children 
siiall  be  taught  of  the  Lord,  and  great  shall  be  the  peace 
cf  thy  children."— Isaiah  liv.  11—13. 

"  And  thy  seed  shall  be  known  among  the  Gentiles, 
and  their  oiF.^pring  among  the  peoples  ;  all  that  see  them 
shall  acknowledge  them,  that  they  are  the  seed  which  the 
Lord  hath  blessed" — Isaiah  Ixi.  9. 

"  And  all  nations  shall  call  you  blessed  !  for  ye  shall 
be  a  delightsome  land,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts." — Mala- 
chi  iii.  12. 


104  ISRAEL    AND    JERUSALEM. 

The  king  of  France  complacently  announced  to  the 
French  Chambers,  on  the  fourth  day  of  December,  1841, 
that  he  had  concluded  a  connection  with  the  king  of  Prus- 
sia and  the  queen  of  England,  for  the  consolidation  of  the 
repose  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  repose  of,  at 
least,  one  portion  of  that  empire  will  be  consolidated  by 
no  human  connections,  but  consolidated  it  will  be,  and 
when  consolidated,  as  truly  as  God  liveth,  its  repose  will 
be  sweet  and  everlasting,  for  the  blessed  trinity  of  cove- 
nants is  established  on  sure  foundations,  on  Heaven's  firm 
decrees. 


APPENDIX. 


We  extract  as  follows,  from  the  work  of  Colonel  Clies- 
ney,  which  is  entitled,  "  The  Expedition  for  the  survey 
of  the  Rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  carried  on  by  order 
of  the  British  Government  in  the  years  1835,  1836,  and 
1837,  by  Lieut.  Colonel  Chesney,  R.  A.,  F.  R.  S.,  etc., 
Commander  of  the  Expedition."     (Longman's,  1850.) 

"The  river  now  about  to  be  described  (i.  e.  the  Euphrates)  rises 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  shores  of  the  Euxine,  and  in  its 
course  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  almost  skirts  those  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean  The  Euphrates   at  one  time  formed  the  principal 

link  connecting  Europe  commercially  with  the  East.  Its  historical 
celebrity  has  excited  in  its  favor  an  interest  superior  to  that 
which  has  been  felt  for  any  other  river ;  and  it  may  reasonably 
be  expected,  that  when  its  advantages  shall  be  fully  known,  and 
duly  appreciated,  it  will  rise  to  a  high  degree  of  political  and  com- 
mercial importance." 

"  In  a  range  of  more  than  1780  miles  from  its  eastern  source, 
this  river  may  be  said  to  unite  three  great  and  important  seas  ; 
which,  without  it,  would  be  destitute  of  any  water  communication 
with  each  other,  whilst  the  varied  productions  of  the  intervening 
territory  would,  in  a  great  measure,  be  lost  to  the  rest  of  the 
world."     Vol.  I.,  p.  40. 

^'Bir  is  one  of  the  most  frequented  of  all  the  passages  into  Meso- 
potamia, and  about  sixteen  large  passage  boats  are  kept,  ....  for 
the  use  of  the  caravans,  which  occasionally  number  5000  camels." 
P.  46. 

"  This  great  river  then  proceeds  through  the  Date-groves  .... 

across  a  bare   country  onwards  to  Hillah This  Town    is 

built  on  a  part  of  Babylon,  and  chiefly  with  materials  obtained  from 
U 


106  APPENDIX. 

its  ruins :  it  contained,  in  1831,  the  time  of  my  first  visit,  about 
10,000  inhabitants,  whose  dwellings  are  principally  on  the  right 
bank  ;  the  line  of  houses  forming  an  obtuse  angle,  almost  midway 
between  the  Mujellebe  and  the  still  more  celebrated  Birs  Nim- 
roud."     P.  57. 

Extracts  of  Letters  to  Colonel  Chesney,  from  Officers  sent  by  him  to 
explore  the  capabilities  of  the  Euphrates  for  Steam  Navigation  and 
Traffic. 

"  Sir, 

"  The  noble  and  interesting  river  Euphrates  is  far  too  cele- 
brated to  require  from  me  more  than  a  fair  view  of  the  prospect  it 
offers  for  establishing  an  economical  and  more  rapid  communica- 
tion between  Great  Britain  and  her  Indian  possessions,  than  has 
hitherto  been  attained.  The  brilliant  prospects  of  a  new  channel 
being  opened  to  our  enterprising  mercantile  world  through  a 
steam  establishment  on  the  Euphrates,  ought  to  awaken  our  best 
energies." 

(Signed)  "  R.  F.  Cleveland,  R.N." 

"Dated  17th  July,  1836." 

Extract  of  Letter  from  E.  P.   Charhvood,  Esq.,   R.   N.,   to   Colonel 
Chesney.    (P.  691.) 

"  The  Arabs  always  evinced  great  eagerness  to  barter  their  pro- 
visions, and  in  fact  everything  they  possessed,  for  our  Glasgow 
merchandise so  that  I  am  convinced  considerable  com- 
merce would  be  carried  on  with  great  success  on  the  river. 
Taking  all  these  things  into  consideration,  I  should  say  it  would 
be  highly  advisable  to  navigate  this  river,  as  being  the  sj^eediest 
and  most  secure  route  between  Great  Britain  and  her  Indian  pos- 
sessions." 

Extract  of  Letter   fi-om   James  Fitzjames,   Esq.,    R.  N.,   to   Colonel 
Chesney.     (P.  694.) 

"  The  advantages  that  would  ensue  from  the  establishment  of  a 
regular  steam  communication  on  the  Euphrates,  would,  I  am  con- 
vinced, amply  repay  any  outlay  and  trouble  which  might  attend 
the  commencement.  The  avidity  with  which  the  inhabitants  of 
the  different  towns  on  the  river  bought  oiir  Manchester  woollen 


APPENDIX. 


107 


goods,  &c.,  sufficiently  proves  that  a  great  opening  is  presented  to 
our  commerce.  Aleppo,  Bagdad,  Basrah,  and  (should  the  Karim 
be  navigated)  Ispahan,  would  soon  become  marts  for  British  pro- 
duce, and  the  influence  of  the  British  name  be  thus  increased  and 
extended." 

"  Taking  these  things  into  consideration,  it  appears  to  me,  that 
England  would  not  have  cause  to  regret  having  made  the  Euphra- 
tes the  high  road  to  her  Indian  possessions,  even  should  it  after- 
wards be  found  that  letters  and  passengers  might  be  conveyed 
with  more  speed  by  the  line  of  the  Red  Sea." 

"  A  splendid  road  might  be  made  over  the  .100  miles  which  sep- 
arate the  Euphrates  from  the  Mediterranean.     I  should  think  a 

railroad  impracticable,  but  I  think  a  canal  might  be  cut 

This  would  complete  the  communication  by  water,  of  England 
with  India,  by  the  shortest  possible  line." 

Extract  from  Letter  of  W.  Ainsworth,  Esq.,  Surgeon  and  Geologist  to 
the  Expedition. 

"  The  river  Euphrates  is  evidently  a  navigable  stream.  I  am 
acquainted  with  it  ...  .  from  the  Taurus,  to  its  embushure  in 
the  Persian  Gulf,  a  distance  of  upwards  of  1,200  miles  ;  and  in 
that  extent,  there  are  only  two  real  difficulties,  both  of  which  are 
superable,  by  undergoing  an  expense  quite  disproportioned  to  the 
importance  of  rendering  efficient  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and 
throughout  so  lengthened  a  course,  the  navigation  of  this  noble 
river In  a  commercial  point  of  view,  the  close  communi- 
cation thus  established  with  so  great  an  emporium  of  trade  as 
Bagdad,  is  of  the  very  first  importance  ;  nor  is  the  connexion  that 
would  be  established  between  Basrah  and  Bagdad  of  a  trifling 
character ;  but  there  are  also  on  the  river  between  Kurnah  and 
Felujah,  large  towns,  as  Sheikhel-Shuyakh  and  Hillah,  and  pow- 
erful tribes,  as  the  Mountefik  Arabs,  who  have  long  been  actuated 
by  the  spirit  of  commercial  enterprise." 

"There  is,  indeed,  amongst  almost  all  the  tribes  a  cupidity  that 
is  easily  aroused,  and  which  would  stir  up  the  people  to  new  exer- 
tion, in  order  to  obtain  comforts  and  luxuries  with  Avhich  they 
would  then  first  become  acquainted,  and  would  not  be  slow  in  ap- 
preciating.    The  boasted  frugality  and  indifference  of  the  Arab, 


108  APPENDIX. 

are  not  proof  against  the  inventions  of  an  improved  mechanism  in 
cutlery  or  fire-arms ;  and  nowhere  is  there  displayed  a  greater 
anxiety  for  gay  dresses  and  ornaments :  this  taste  has  become 
almost  a  passion  with  both  sexes.  We  have  abundant  evidences 
of  the  love  of  decorating  their  children,  and  of  a  desire  to  improve 
their  condition." 

"  The  advantages  which  are  presented  by  the  opening  of  the 
navigation  of  the  river  Euphrates,  belong  to  the  universal  civiliza- 
tion, as  well  as  to  increase  of  national  power.  The  waters  of  this 
great  river  flow  past  the  habitations  of  four  millions  of  human 
beings,  amongst  whom  their  own  traditions  have  transmitted,  the 
sense  of  a  revolution  to  be  effected  by  the  introduction  of  a  religion 
of  humility,  of  charity,  and  of  forbearance." 

"  The  intellectual  powers  of  the  descendants  from  the  most  no- 
ble stocks  of  the  human  race,  are  not  extinct  in  their  present  fallen 
representatives,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  to  what  extent 
civilization  might  flourish,  when  revived  in  its  most  antique 
home." 

"  The  national  importance  of  this  navigation,  is  of  the  most 
comprehensive  character.  All  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the 
communication  of  nations,  which,  as  Montesquieu  has  ably  pointed 
out,  is  the  history  of  commerce,  must  be  aware,  that  those  circum- 
stances which  led  to  the  annihilation  of  the  commerce  of  the  East, 
would  be  revolutionised  by  the  opening  now  proposed  to  be 
effected ;  and  that  whilst  civilization  might  be  confidently  ex- 
pected to  return  to  its  almost  primeval  seat,  it  would  do  so  under 
a  very  difl'erent  aspect,  and  with  vastly  improved  means,  over  the 
days  of  Opis  and  Ophir,  or  of  Caucasium  and  Callinicum."  "All 
these  advantages  are  to  be  obtained  by  the  navigation  which  you 
have  entered  upon,  and  of  which  you  have  proved  the  practicabil- 
ity."    P.  697. 

Dr.  Layard,  "WTiting  to  an  eminent  English  merchant  in  1843, 
says,  "  I  believe  Susiana  to  be  a  province  highly  capable  of  the 
most  varied  cultivation  ;  the  soil  is  rich,  labour  cheap,  the  inhab- 
itants well  disposed,  and  the  country  traversed  by  several  noble 
rivers :  .  .  .  .  the  land  is  highly  favorable  for  the  cultivation  of 
cotton,  which  is  now  much  neglected,  but  which  might  be  much 
improved.     I  made  many  enquiries  as  to  the  growth  of  hemp,  .  . 


APPENDIX.  109 

.  .  and  I  found  the  country  well  adapted  for  its  cultivation."  P. 
701. 

"  Notwithstanding  all  the  existing  disadvantages,  boats  with 
merchandise  are  continually  tracking  up  the  rivers  in  Mesopota- 
mia ;  but  the  fleets  going  up  the  Tigris  against  the  stream,  from 
Basrah  to  Bagdad,  consume  from  thirty  to  forty  days,  while  a 
steamer  would  perform  this  distance  in  four  days  and  a  haK."  P. 
705. 

"  Good  freights  are  therefore  secured  for  steamers,  and  a  valua- 
ble opening  presented  for  trade,  since  an  Arab  population  of  about 
twelve  millions  is  to  be  supplied.  The  actual  trade  to  Bagdad  was 
in  1833 — 12,000  bales  or  packages,  brought  up  the  Tigris  at  a 
freight  of  1/.  per  bale." 

'•  The  establishment  of  the  navigation,  would  probably  lead  to 
that  of  English  mercantile  houses  at  all  the  chief  places  of  trade 
on  the  Euphrates  and  other  rivers  and  branches  at  the  interior 
stations.    Pp.  704,  705. 

«'  The  wheat  and  barley  are  particularly  fine ;  nor  is  it  very 
uncommon  to  have  three  successive  crops  of  grain  in  some  places. 
The  gardens  yield  grapes  in  abundance,  also  oranges,  peaches, 
nectarines,  figs,  apples,  pomegranates,  and  other  fruits.  Honey, 
wax,  manna,  and  gall-nuts,  are  exported  from  the  more  mountain- 
ous districts,  where,  especially  eastward  of  Tarabusim,  the  finest 
timber  is  very  abundant.  The  scenery  here  is  at  once  beautiful 
and  strikingly  grand  from  various  points  of  view,  as  the  moun- 
tains are  seen  rising  abruptly  from  the  sea  to  an  elevation  of  four 
or  five  thousand  feet,  their  sides  being  covered  with  dense  forests, 
composed  of  gigantic  chesnut,  beech,  walnut,  alder,  poplar,  wil- 
low, ash,  maple,  and  box  trees,  with  firs  towards  their  summits, 
and  a  magnificent  iinderwood  of  rhododendron,  bay,  and  hazel 

&c The   less   elevated   grounds    produce    cotton,    hemp, 

tobacco,  and  raw  silk  in  abundance ;  besides  precious  stones,  such 
as  the  turquoise,  beryl,  chrystal,  pearl,  and  ruby.  Besides  the 
more  valuable  metals,  gold  and  silver,  Armenia  abounds  in  cop- 
per, lead,  iron,  saltpetre,  sulphur,  bitumen,  quarries  of  coal,  mar- 
ble, and  jasper,  with  several  mineral  springs,  which  have  been 
celebrated  for  many  ages." 

"  The  Armenians  are  exceedingly  fond  of  foreign  commerce  and 


110  APPENDIX. 

home  trade,  both  of  which  are  prosecuted  with  such  success,  that 
even  the  Jews  are  in  many  instances  driven  out  of  the  field  of 
competition.  The  Armenians  have  been  described  as  hrave^  a 
quality  however  that  has  long  passed  from  them.  They  are  now 
a  commercial  and  agricultural  people  ;  well  clad,  abundantly  fed, 
and  possessing  sheep,  cattle,  and  fine  horses  in  abundance."  Pp. 
95—99. 

"  The  exports  of  Mesopotamia  are :  wheat,  barley,  rice,  and 
other  grains,  horses,  pearls,  coral,  honey,  dates,  cotton,  silk, 
tobacco,  gall-jiuts,  wool,  bitumen,  naptha,  saltpetre,  salt,  coarse 
coloured  cottons,  fine  handkerchiefs,  and  other  manufactures  of 
a  country  enjoying  advantages  which  which  will  eventually  make 
its  commerce  more  important  than  that  of  Egypt."     P.  109. 

•'  The  numerous  towns  along  the  Euphrates,  and  the  extensive 
population,  partly  permanent,  and  partly  nomadic,  on  the  banks 
of  that  river,  will  ultimately  require  several  stations ;  but  for  the 
present,  one  should  be  at  Hillah  (Babylon),  and  another  at  Anah, 
and  a  third  at  Beles." 

"Though  the  subject  has  only  been  considered  relatively  to  the 
people  in  their  present  state,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Meso- 
potamia possesses  as  many  advantages  as,  or  perhaps  more  than, 
any  other  country  in  the  world.  Although  greatly  changed  by 
the  neglect  of  man,  those  portions  which  are  still  cultivated,  as 
the  country  about  Hillah  (Babylon),  show  that  the  region  has  all 
the  fertility  ascribed  to  it  by  Herodotus,  Avho  considered  its  pro- 
ductions as  equal  to  one-third  of  those  furnished  by  all  Asia. 
Being  equal  to,  and  in  many  respects  even  superior  to  Egypt  with 
regard  to  its  position  and  its  capabilities,  the  time  need  not  be 
distant  when  the  date-groves  of  the  Euphrates  may  be  inter- 
spersed with  flourishing  towns,  surrounded  with  fields  of  the 
finest  wheat,  and  the  most  productive  plantations  of  indigo,  cot- 
ton, and  sugar-cane."     Vol.  II.,  p.  603. 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

To  these  extracts,  we  add,  as  follows,  from  Dr.  B.  W. 
Newton. 

"The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  kindly  sent  to  me  by  a  gentle- 
man in  India.  It  was  written  upwards  of  twenty  years  ago,  after  a 
visit  to  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  He  was,  I  believe,  not  at  all  aware  at 
that  time  that  any  were  expecting  the  restoration  and  future  destruc- 
tion of  Babylon.  His  conviction  respecting  the  non-fulfilment  of  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  were  the  result  of  his  own  personal 
observation  of  facts.  A  few  verbal  alterations,  not  affecting  the  sense, 
have  been  made,  and  I  have  been  obliged  to  leave  a  blank  in  one  or 
two  places  where  the  manuscript  is  illegible." 

"  A  fair  Anew  of  the  prophecies  against  Babylon,  as  given  in 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  will  show  that  they  have  not  yet  been  fully 
and  finally  accomplished.  Much  has  been  done  in  demonstration 
of  judgment  against  her  ;  but  her  last  and  complete  ruin  is  yet  to 
come.  A  stone  was  bound  to  a  book,  and  cast  into  the  Euphrates, 
and  it  was  said,  '  Thus  shall  Babylon  sink,  and  shall  not  rise 
from  the  evil  that  I  shall  bring  upon  her.'  (Jer.  li.  63,  64.)  This 
speaks  clearly  of  one  final  and  irrecoverable  ruin  ;  but  Babylon 
rose  again  repeatedly  from  the  ruin  that  at  first  assailed  her.  Keith's 
book  on  prophecy  shows  that  she  was  several  hundred  years  being 
brought  to  desolation,  and  that  her  end  was  not  sudden,  but  most 
gradual.  Cyrus  took  her  more  than  500  years  before  Christ: 
Alexander  took  and  attempted  to  rebuild  her  200  years  after 
CjTus.  In  that  interval  her  walls  were  reduced,  and  she  was 
much  shorn  of  her  power  and  wealth.  She  was  finally  brought 
to  desolation  by  the  building  of  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon  in  her 
neighborhood  by  the  successes  of  Alexander,  who  thereby  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  away  the  inhabitants  from  Babylon.  She  did 
not  fall  once  and  for  all — suddenly—  never  to  rise,  like  a  stone  cast 
into  the  waters. 

"  It  is  said  that  they  shall  not  take  of  thee  « a  stone  for  a  comer 
nor  a  stone  for  a  foundation.'  (Jer.  li.)    But  the  ruin  of  the  build- 
ings at  Babylon  has  been  mainly  accelerated  by  the  removal  of 
the   materials  with  which  she  was   built,  for  the   construction  of 
other  towns  in  the  neighborhood. 

'« It  is  said  that  this  land  of  Babylon  shall  be  a  desolation,  with- 
out an  inhabitant  (Jer.  li.)  ;  but  there  is  now  the  modern  Arab 
tOAvn  of  Hillah  and  two  villages  besides,  together  with  several 
gardens  and  date  plantations  within  the  limits  of  the  ruins. 


112  APPENDIX . 

"It  is  said  that  she  shall  'be  a  land  where  no  man  dwelleth, 
neither  doth  any  son  of  man  pass  thereby.'  Now,  besides  myriads 
of  Asiatics,  many  Europeans  have  passed  thereby,  and  thoroughly 
examined  the  place. 

"  It  is  said  that  '  the  Arabian  shall  not  pitch  his  tent  there.' 
(Isaiah  xiii.  20.)  In  1835,  when  I  was  there,  I  saw  marks  of  an 
Arab  encampment  which  must  have  halted  there  for  several 
weeks.  When  the  Arabs  make  a  long  stay  in  any  place,  they 
erect  mud  pillars  breast  high,  and  hollowed  out  at  the  top  for 
their  horses  to  feed  from,  as  from  a  manger.  The  remains  of  these 
pillars  I  saw  ;  they  could  not  have  formed  part  of  the  old  ruins, 
for  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  would  have  washed  them  down.  My 
attendant  explained  to  me  what  they  wel'e. 

'<I  believe  then,  that  Babylon  will  be  rebuilt,  and  rise  to  the 
splendor  described  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  and  that  she  will 
then  suddenly  and  finally  be  brought  to  ruin.  There  are  facilities 
in  that  country  for  bringing  about  such  prosperity  in  a  wonder- 
fully short  time.  The  soil  is  all  ...  .  mould  and  clay,  without 
a  single  stone,  and  productive  if  watered.  Formerly  there  were 
canals  in  all  directions,  fed  by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  It  is 
only  necessary  to  repair  the  banks  of  these  to  make  Babylonia 
the  most  fertile  land  in  the  globe.  Wealth  is  so  easily  attained, 
that  in  a  few  years  the  Pasha  of  Bagdad,  fifty  miles  from  Babylon, 
by  withholding  tribute  from  the  Sultan,  was  enabled  to  have  a 
court  rivalling  that  of  Erzeroum." 


CONTENTS. 


Pag. 

Preface.  .        .        .        .        • -^ 

The  Prophetic  Earth  of  Daniel  and  the  Revelation. 
Scripture  symbols  of  the  rise,  decline,  and  fall,  of  the 
four  great  Gentile  Powers 9 

The  Literal  Babylon  of  Prophecy.      Its  final  destruction 

co-incident  with  the  future  restoration  of  Israel.      .         .     22 

The  Symbolic  Babylon  of  Prophecy.  Its  composite 
character,  including,  not  Komanism  only,  but  all  farms 
of  false  religion  and  infidelity 38 

The  Antichrist  of  Prophecy.  The  restoration  of  the  Jews 
in  unbelief,  and  their  subsequent  persecution  by  Anti- 
christ  

Israel  and  Jerusalem  of  Prophecy.  God's  covenants 
concerning  them,  and  their  final  exaltation.      . 


Appendix.    Extracts  frojp    Colonel  Chesney's  Report,  etc.        1( 


DATE  DUE 

fill  l.,!-^ 

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i 

HIGHSMITH         #  45220 

BS649  .J5L85 

Briefs  on  prophetic  themes 

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1   1012  00007  2936 


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